The Vulcan: The Broken Bat
by shenandoahok
Summary: JJ remembers how his progeny in the ancient world defeated him with a magical crystal that causes him to fall madly in love with whoever wears it. Lena discovers the crystal, wears it, and he falls madly in love with her, angering Peppermint, his fiance.
1. Chapter 1

The Vulcan

(The Broken Bat)

Prologue

The darkness consumed the light, and the Gotham Knight flew through the air in his powerful bat suit; it was made out of a new, high-tech fiber alloy, and bullets couldn't penetrate it. The man underneath the mask, an older man approximately fifty-seven-years -old, and the powerful energy source that gave the uniform life weighed heavy on his heart muscles—weakening them. It was October Twenty Seventeen and an especially warm day when he donned his tenebrous uniform. He hadn't been on patrol since he helped the Vulcan fight against Ganthet because of the shortness of breath, pain in his chest, and occasional weakness. His doctor warned him that he'd have to slow down because the exercise stressed his heart.

When he took flight, he flew up and away so fast that he developed vertigo. It took him a few seconds to work through it, and then he darted straight for Gotham, First National Bank. He cut through the wind like an aerodynamic jet, and when he landed in front of the bank, several masked men tumbled out the front door. Immediately, he deployed a series of bang grenades and then engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the miscreants. He moved like a twenty-year-old, trained fighter, and the suit enhanced his strength and agility. But when he fought the last criminal, he felt a pain in his chest, and he couldn't catch his breath. He tried his best to back away from the criminal, but he lumbered along the street.

"Look at the big, black bat," the criminal said as he taunted him. "I thought I'd never see a weakened bat." He ran up to the Gotham Knight and punched him in the back of the head. He tried to fight back, but his arms felt like he was holding heavyweights. He felt himself dying, and there wasn't anything he could do about it. When the criminal pulled out his gun, he pointed it directly at the Gotham Knight. "This is a special, armor-piercing bullet," he said, "It can go through a tank." Suddenly, a lightning bolt flew through the air and cut off the man's arm, and it fell to the ground.

When JJ landed in front of the Gotham Knight he wore a solid black uniform with a V on his chest. The criminal tried to pick up the gun, and another lightning bolt turned him into dust. Rachel had given him the suit, and he had a white armored suit for Peppermint in his backpack.

"You're killing people now?" GK asked as he fell to his knees.

"You're welcomed, GK," he said as he flew straight into the air. He took GK to the top of Wayne Industries and pulled off the old man's suit. "I'll take these to your cave." He then took him to the hospital and rushed him through the emergency room. The nurses and doctors worked on him quickly and saved his life from a massive heart attack.

JJ raced to South Bend Street and came up to a nice home in a cul-de-sac. It was so perfect with the nice flowers in front of the house. They looked like Annuals, but he didn't know too much about flowers. He rapped on the door, the hardwood door, and it was thick like a barricade. It was like the entire house could stave off a missile attack. After several taps on the door, a tall black man answered, and said, "There's a doorbell."

"Excuse me," JJ said with a grimace. "I don't just push things when I come to Gotham. That's a good way to get blown up, Sam."

He smiled for a moment. "Good point, Vulcan," Sam Young said. "It's the Vulcan, Barbara."

"Barbara, how are you doing?" JJ said.

"Fine. What do you need?" She asked.

"You don't know me very well, but I had to save GK from himself. You have to talk to him, ma'am."

"About what?" She asked. "If you know GK, he's going to do what he's going to do."

"He's too old to be running around fighting crime," he said with a grimace. "He just had a heart attack. I dropped him off at Gotham Medical Center. I think he's going to be okay, but damn, Barbara. There's a point when enough is enough." Sam walked into the living room with some tea and poured Barba a drink.

"Thank you, dear," she said to her husband. "Vulcan, would you like a hot beverage?"

"No thank you, ma'am," he said.

"What do you want me to do about GK? I'm not going to arrest him."

"I'll never prosecute him," Sam said. "He's a fixture of good in Gotham."

"The best thing I can do is beg him to put up the suit," She said as she sipped her tea. "Why do you show up on my doorstep when you have a problem with GK, young man?"

"I know more about you than you know about you, ma'am," he said. "I've studied everybody associated with the Gotham Knight in depth. I leave no stone unturned, Batgirl."

She looked up at him for a moment with a grimace, and said, "Ugh. I haven't heard that in a long time."

"Don't hate the name," he said, "You're still Batgirl. Now, you're just Batgirl with a badge. You're still fighting for good. You're still putting the bad guys away."

"That's what I said," Sam said. "I tell her all the time that she's still Batgirl to me."

JJ smiled. " I'm begging you to talk to him, Barbara. I'm only in Gotham because I had a meeting with my boss, but I might not be around the next time."

"You care about him?" She asked.

"It's not that, but he's a good man underneath all the anger. Well, his philosophies are good, but his drive is a major factor in his cloistered lifestyle. He thinks crime will run rampant without him, but he must hand the reins over to the younger generation." He walked over to Barbara, and said, "Please persuade him to hang it up. We can't let the world see a weakened Gotham Knight. I don't want the world to ever see the Bat with a broken wing."

Gotham Medical Center (GMC) October 27th : 14:32

The medical center had a multitude of people running about, but JJ was oblivious to what was happening. An ambulance rolled up to the emergency room entrance and dropped off a bloodied patient, and it didn't look as if he'd make it. Ducking into one of the side closets in the main hallway of the hospital, he changed out of his uniform. He wore his gothic black clothing and had an upside down cross on his black shirt. He took out a small case, a case of silver contact lenses, and placed them in his eyes, and he knew it made him look sinister. He wore a black collar that signified oppression, and all of the boxy kids started wearing them after the government talked about passing laws where metahumans would have to register with the government. It was a horrible thought that he opposed at every turn, and his ideas put him in direct conflict with the vestiges of the Justice Corp.

He walked over to the help desk of the Gotham Medical Center; it was the help desk in the emergency room and looked directly at the secretary. It amazed him that she actually had time to file her nails with so much excitement happening in the place. Every time he tried to compose himself, it seemed like another ambulance dropped off another body. The waiting room area had a slew of people walking about with worried looks on their faces. It was a building of misery.

He glared at the woman, and said, "I need Mister Wayne's room number." He looked at her white name tag with black lettering, and it read Teresa Gray. She was no more than twenty-one, somewhat frumpy, and with long black hair.

When she looked up at JJ, she jumped at the sight of him. "Good Lord. You're creeping me the fuck out!" She exclaimed. "Are you part of his family or something?"

"I'm a friend of his," he said in a calm voice. "Is he okay?"

"I can't really give you that information," she said with a grimace. "If you're not family, I'm not authorized to tell you about his condition."

"Listen, Teresa! I'm the closest thing he has to family," he said, "Is he okay? Yes or no? There's no reason this should be difficult."

"No," she said. "He's not okay." She grimaced, and then asked, "Where do you get your beautiful clothing?"

"Gothic Wear," he said. "It's an outlet store in National City." He took one of her pens off the counter and wrote down the store's phone number. 'Give them a holler, and tell Sharon that JJ sent you."

"Thank you," she said with a smile.

He walked over to the other side of the room, and immediately called Barbara. He wanted to see Mister Wayne so badly that he thought about flying up to his room. In addition, he had the power to turn himself into an electrical current and appear in his room like magic, but he wanted to walk into the place like a man. Besides, the only time he moved into the walls and along the electrical lines was when he became enraged over something J'onn said or did.

When Barbara answered her phone, he told her that Mister Wayne's condition had taken a turn for the worse. While he was on the telephone with her, she walked through the sliding doors. Immediately, he walked up to them, and she flinched at the way he looked.

"Vulcan?" She asked. "You scared the hell out of me. "

"Sorry, ma'am. Just call me JJ," he said with a smile. He stood directly in front of her, and said, "As his sister, you'll be able to get us upstairs to see him."

"I'm…"

"As his sister," JJ snapped back.

"Oh. Okay," she said. "I see."

Mister Wayne's Private Room:

Spacious and extravagant-and more than he needed due to the fact he was in no condition to enjoy it because he wasn't conscious-was the first thing JJ noticed about the room. He lay in the bed with a machine breathing for him, and it was obvious death was imminent. The machine was so loud that he could barely hear himself think, and Barbara's eyes watered as she watched her former mentor lying on his deathbed. So many tubes, so many nurses roaming the hallway, so many things had gone wrong between the time he dropped him off and the time he made it upstairs. Everything was wrong.

Mister Wayne's colorless face made JJ believe his death was imminent, and he knew he couldn't allow him to die. He looked like a husk, an empty shell with nobody on the inside. When he dropped him off in the emergency room, he thought everything would be okay because he was fully awake. Barbara placed her hands over her mouth when she saw his condition, and then said, "He was so strong. I can only imagine the pain he must be in right now." Her husband held her closely, and JJ walked over to a chair that set against the far wall.

"I didn't expect this, Barbara," he said with a grimace. "When I dropped him off earlier, he was alert."

"That's the way of things," Sam said. "When heart attacks happen, often it's crippling."

Frustrated, JJ stuck his head between his knees and tried to think what needed to be done. Under no circumstance did he want to let Mister Wayne die. In fact, it wasn't congruent with what he knew about the future. According to the Green Witch, Mister Wayne played an acute role in the training of the next Batman, and it was that Batman who would raise the Destroyer.

A diminutive man, a man of Indian descent named Doctor Benja walked into the room, and JJ immediately stood to his feet. The doctor didn't have much hair on his head at all, but he only looked thirtyish. He had a clipboard and looked down at it for a brief second. "He had a massive heart attack. There's nothing we can do at this point. We're administering palliative care to make the transition easier, but in twenty-four to forty-eight hours, he'll lose brain function."

JJ sat down in the chair next to the wall for a moment, wiped his face, and asked, "There's no possibility of recovery?"

"Not unless a miracle happens," the doctor said with an unhappy look on his face. "With what I'm seeing on all the test, his heart is done."

"What's the probability of there being a mistake?" JJ asked.

"This man's a professional, JJ," Sam interjected.

"I'm not questioning his skills, but I'm a man of numbers," JJ replied.

"About a fifteen percent chance we're wrong," he said, "I'd push it more to a ten percent chance at this point."

"Thank you, doctor," JJ said, "I just wanted to know the numbers."

"But if he awoke, it'd be a miracle," the doctor said.

"Yeah. I don't believe in miracles," JJ said while looking over at Barbara. "Please give us some privacy while I talk with his sister."

"Yes, sir," the doctor said.

Immediately, he pulled out his cell phone, and text his girlfriend Patty "Peppermint" Lee, and wrote.

Text Message to Peppermint:

JJ: Bring the device to Gotham's Medical Center. Move as fast as possible. We're in room eight-thirty-two.

Peppermint: On my way.

End Text Message

Barbara pulled out her cell phone and called her father, and JJ grabbed it, hung it up, and she complained. "Why did you do that?"

"Don't tell anybody about this?" He said with a grimace. He knew what he had to do, and he couldn't have everybody discussing the miracle that happened with Mister Wayne. The Green Witch had given him a device so powerful that it had the ability to restore life. It was a science beyond anything in existence, and he planned on using it to save his life. "The fewer people know the less explaining I'll have to do."

"What are you saying?" She asked with a befuddled look on her face.

"It's classified, Barbara. You guys head to the house, and I'll take it from here," he said, "I promise he'll be over for Thanksgiving. Okay, I don't promise that, but he'll at least give you a call."

"Do you know what you're doing?" She asked. "The doctor just said he wouldn't recover."

"Do we ever know what we're doing?" He said smilingly. "What you heard and what I heard are two different things. I heard there's a chance, and I'm going to use that window of opportunity to make him better. The less you know the better you'll be. So, you forget what the doctor said, focus on what I'm saying, and that way nobody needs to explain what's going to happen here."

"Before you exit my city, you call me, JJ," she said. "You obviously know something I don't know."

"Yes, ma'am," he said. "When I'm done, we'll have your old mentor back."

A little later...

When Peppermint walked into the room with the device, she had on her black, Gothic wear with the collar of oppression around her neck, and handed JJ the device. Her hair was long in the back and she wore black rimmed glasses. Her black collar fitted perfectly on her neck, and she looked svelte except for her baby bump.

"He's looking bad," she said as she looked over at him, "I didn't know it was like this."

"Me either," he said. He kissed her lightly on the mouth, and then said, "Stand outside the door, so nobody sees this." As soon as she stood outside the door, he didn't waste time in fitting the device to Mister Wayne's midsection. He had a multitude of scars all over his torso, and it was obvious the man had a lot of brushes with death.

He could hear nurses traipsing back and forth in the hallway, and at times, he had a hard time drowning out all the noises his ears picked up. He wanted to remain focused on Mister Wayne, but every time a nurse walked past the door, he felt on edge. Once he had the device fitted on Mister Wayne one of the nurses came to the door. She had a strong voice that carried throughout the entire hallway.

"Please don't enter the room," Peppermint said calmly. "Reverend Johnson is doing a twenty minute, deep prayer session, so Mister Wayne's soul finds the right path on its journey."

"Twenty minutes? Y'all messin' with my schedule," she said loudly. "I'll be back."

The device said, "Narcotizing patient." JJ sat in his chair for a moment as the device repaired Mister Wayne's body. Immediately, he realized that he didn't set the parameters correctly because he watched the fifty-seven-year-old man rejuvenate in front of his eyes. He continued to watch Mister Wayne as some color turned to his pale skin, and then the machine said, "Restoration done." He looked at his face for a moment, and he looked about ten years younger, and that wasn't what he wanted to do. He didn't want to make the man younger for several reasons, and the main one was it might interfere with the timeline. The machine fixed his heart completely, but it restored some of his youthfulness, and he immediately realized that could interfere with the future. He placed the device back in its carrier and pulled out the piece for the brain. He stuck that on Mister Wayne's head, and a red light appeared on the face of it.

"Restoring logical brain," the device said.

It reconnected all of his wirings and restored any parts damaged by the massive heart attack. He blinked his eyes rapidly for a moment and then grimaced at JJ.

"Peppermint," JJ said, "Get in here."

She walked into the room, and said, "Did it work?"

"Yeah," he said, "Help me take off this stuff off him."

JJ pulled the tubing from down Mister Wayne's throat, and he began to gag in the process. When he liberated the tubing from his throat, Mister Wayne began coughing for a moment, and then he said aloud, "Oh shit! I think I died! But I feel like Superman right now."

"About that?" JJ asked. "I only meant to restore your heart health, but I accidentally took about ten years off your life because I didn't set the machine correctly. I'm sorry about that."

Peppermint handed him a mirror, and said, "Here you go, Mister Wayne."

He took the mirror and looked at himself for a moment. "What's the problem?" He asked. "I'm looking happy and healthy."

"Probably nothing," JJ said, "Maybe everything is okay. We can't talk about this ever, Mister Wayne. Never. Barbara and Sam came by, and I told them you'd at least call them on Thanksgiving, but I also asked them to keep quiet."

"Who all knows?" He asked.

"Peppermint, Barbara, Sam, and the doctors," he said, "We'll just say it was a misdiagnosis."

When Peppermint sat in the chair to rest her back, Doctor Benja walked into the room, and when he saw Mister Wayne walking over to the bathroom, he nearly fell down, but Peppermint caught him.

"Are you okay?" JJ said with a grimace on his face. He helped his fiance keep the man upright.

He looked at Mister Wayne's empty bed, and then looked over at the bathroom for a moment. "How is this possible?"

"I think we know miracles don't happen," JJ said with a smile. "It's obvious mistakes were made in the testing. It happens to the best of us." JJ paused for a moment and shook the doctor's right hand. He then turned to the bathroom, and said, "Mister Wayne, Peppermint and I are heading back to National City. Give me a holler if you need anything."

"Run by the mansion, and get me a suit, JJ," he said from the bathroom. "One of my business suits."

Chapter One

Little Africa High prepared for the Halloween Dance, and Peppermint with her band of boxy students fixed the entire auditorium up in a nineteen fifties rock n roll theme honoring Chuck Berry. The decoration committee dressed the entire gym in a classic fifties style, and some Little Richard played in the background. It was the song, "Lucille." A life-size photo of Chuck Berry met everybody at the entrance into the gymnasium, and Principal Taylor drove an old, Chevy onto the auditorium floor, and it was in mint condition.

JJ at first wanted Peppermint to indulge in a more busy style of decoration, but Peppermint said for such an occasion less meant more. On the stage set the guitars and drum sets and JJ's guitar with Peppermint's face on it was center stage. Right beneath the pull out stage was the entertainment center: stereo, turntables, and so on. Huge speakers set against the walls throughout the auditorium and JJ felt everything was going right.

When Peppermint climbed onto the ladder, JJ immediately became worried, and asked, "Should you be up there like that?" He stood below her with a stitch of anger on his face like he knew what was best for her.

She looked down at him and grimaced. "Um. I can fly around town, but this makes you nervous?" She asked in an informal manner.

"Okay then," he said as he walked away. He didn't say anything else to her about ladders after that. She flew all the way to Gotham, gave him the medical device to heal Mister Wayne, and then flew back to National City. But at the same time, with her being four months pregnant, he didn't know how to act. He worried about all the excitement of being a part-time hero was too much for her. At times, it was too much for him because he had all of his school work, band, and all the other nonsense he liked doing after school. As of late, Peppermint's health was his number one concern. Nothing in his mind took more of his time than her.

Nate and Vera roamed into the auditorium and started setting up the tables around the room, and it was the first time he recalled her actually participating in a Halloween dance setup. JJ and Peppermint always involved themselves in the setup, even if they only did something small. But now that Vera didn't wear an ileostomy bag, she no longer chose to live a forlorn life of hating her body and telling her momma she wanted to die. Due to the fact JJ and Peppermint spent a lot of time at her house, they heard her complain about her past problems a lot. Now after he used the sophisticated, medical device to restore her health, she doesn't speak of the bags anymore.

It took about four hours for the decoration committee to put everything in place, and it looked professional with how the ruffles aligned the walls. They tried their best to give the gymnasium the 1950s feel, and according to the sign-up roster, they expected nearly five hundred students in the gym.

Nate walked over to JJ, and said, "You heard somebody burned down Shonny's house in National City, right?" He immediately noticed how Nate looked over at him in what he thought was an accusatory glare. He looked right over his glasses at JJ, and tacitly asked, "You don't know anything about that right?"

"Don't look at me like I know something," JJ snapped at his old friend. He hated Shonny, but he wasn't about to burn down the kid's house. He looked at Nate for a long minute, and asked, "Did my name come up?"

"Not that I know of," He said. "Man! You're like National City's hero after you alerted the cops to the graveyard of dead kids. They're still pulling dead bodies out of that field." He paused for a moment, and then said, "Personally, I think you have a target on your head."

"What makes you say that?" JJ asked with a grimace.

"Dude! Those child predators have entire, underground organizations," he said, "I saw your name mentioned on the Dark Web, but it went to a secured website."

He knew it was true, but the incident had taken place a few days prior, and the nation was enthralled with the mess. When he went to visit Rachel, she was the one who informed him about the target he put on himself. She called the organization the Libertines, and they were a secret organization involved in the sexual exploitation of children. He wasn't surprised that Nate had incited to the goings-on on the Dark Web because he indulged in one particular, dicey, after-dark activity: Shootin' Craps.

"I'm not dealing with the media part of this," JJ said with a grimace. "There're a huge underground market and a lot of power behind the enslavement of children," he said. "It's on the cops to finish the investigation."

"Perhaps," Nate said, "But at some point, the demons will come knocking on your door."

"I'll be ready," JJ said, "But you're the one who needs to be careful. Shootin' Craps is dangerous."

"I know," he said, "But I can make some quick money."

JJ looked at him as he smiled about making money and then said, "Vera Reese is important to me. I don't want you putting her at risk," he said.

"You act like she's your wife," he said with a grimace.

"She's like my sister," JJ said. "But her safety is paramount. Just make sure she's safe at all times."

"We're not dating," he said with a smirk. "So, I don't know why you're acting all concerned."

"You're not fooling me, Nate," He said. "I know you like her. That's obvious." Vera stood across the floor, and looked back at JJ for a moment, and waved. He waved back.

"Yes, I do," he said, "But I'm not going to take her on any dice games."

JJ looked at him for a moment, and as he walked away from him, "I'll be watching." He then went over to Peppermint while she finished up with the last of the decorations. He sat at the table where she rested her feet every once in a while, and she had a half eaten candy bar on the table.

"Is this yours, babe?" JJ asked.

"Yeah," she said. "Are you going to eat it?"

"It looks enticing," he said with a smile.

"Fine! Just eat it then," she said with a grimace. "I knew you'd hog it all if I didn't eat it fast enough." He stuck the whole thing in his mouth, and when Peppermint looked over at him, she shook her head in disbelief. "It's all fun and games until you choke to death."

JJ laid his head on the table and watched Nate and Vera on the other side of the room. He worked his foolishness with her, and did a few backflips on the gymnasium floor, and then Vera clapped for him. He was pretty good with the flips, but he didn't understand why all the showboating for her. He then placed his arms around her, and she seemed to relax in his warmth.

After about five minutes of them hanging on each other, Johnny walked into the gymnasium and came over to JJ. "Lazy ass," he said.

"I work," JJ said. "At least I'm here for moral support." Johnny continued to walk across the floor, over to Nate and Vera, and then they did their special handshake, but Johnny messed it up. "How you mess up the handshake?" JJ screamed from across the floor, but he didn't seem to hear him.

"Say, baby, hold the ladder?" Peppermint asked. He trotted over to the ladder and held it as she stepped down from it. "Fold it up, place it in the utility room, and then let's get out of here."

When he finished putting up the ladder, he ran over to Nate and Johnny, and then asked, "Do you have all the music you need?"

"Yeah," Nate said. "I have all the mp3s you gave me, the albums, and a lot of other music from that era."

"JJ, let's go!" Peppermint screamed from across the floor.

"See Y'all tonight," he said. "Johnny. You need a girlfriend or something."

"By seven?" He asked. "I'm not that boxy."

Later...

It was around two in the afternoon, and most of the school let out to go home early, eat, do whatever, and be back at seven o'clock for the dance. Two o'clock was about the time JJ left school every day because he had already completed a lot of the coursework over the summer months. In his senior year of school, he'd take mostly college accredited classes, and the same for Peppermint.

Vera walked up to them as they walked out of the building. JJ walked closes to the street as they moseyed down the sidewalk.

"You know I like Nate?" Vera asked for a moment. Walking with her hands behind her back, she looked over at him, and the said, "You know, right?"

"Yes," JJ said with a smile. "He likes you also."

"He hasn't told me he likes me yet," she said sheepishly. "I've been waiting for him to actually say he likes me."

"He told me he liked you when we were talking in the gym," JJ said. "He keeps telling me."

"He definitely likes you," Peppermint said. "Actually, he won't shut up about it."

Vera sighed. "Maybe I should make the first move?"

"Oh hell to the gnaw!" JJ exclaimed. "I mean come on. If he likes you, he should make the first move."

"You're very chivalrous," Vera said.

JJ smirked. "It's not that, but do you really want an easily manipulated beta male?"

"Of course not," she said with a grimace. "I want a strong man with principles, morals, and cares about people." She stopped walking for a moment, and then said, "I want somebody who won't beat me."

JJ and Peppermint walked Vera up to her house, told her they'd be by later, and then began their short trek home. The air was cold, but not too chilly, and he took off his jacket, placed it on Peppermint, and continued walking down the street.

"Are you ready to be a Momma?" JJ asked her as they lingered down the street, holding hands, and smiling.

"I'm worried," she said with a grimace. "There are so many bills and I wonder how I'm going to pay for everything."

"Pay for everything?" JJ asked. He stopped on the sidewalk, stood against the building, and Peppermint walked up to him. "You don't have to pay for anything," he said with a grimace. "I've paid for everything so far."

"But what about the big money stuff?" She asked. "What about the birth of the baby?"

He looked down the road at all the people walking about, and said, "It's unfortunate you don't have faith I can provide for my family." He grimaced. "I don't work for free. Cadmus cut me a check for nearly thirty thousand dollars for my consulting work." They began walking down the street again, and then he said, "National City paid me four thousand dollars when I investigated the killings at National City High."

"I understand you're this wiz-kid investigator. You've made apps, and so on, but none of it feels like security," she said. "It's like our whole world can come crashing down at any time."

"Maybe your insecurities are just with me," he said. "I have a bank account with nearly fifty thousand dollars in it, and Cadmus owes me a four thousand dollar check on the next pay period."

"I'm sorry for my negative feelings," she said. "I'll work on myself."

"I'll work on myself too," he said.

The dance was expected to last until twelve o'clock at night, and then the decoration committee would spend Saturday cleaning up the gymnasium. The students had to sign a waiver they wouldn't wreck the place or start any fights. The school hired a total of seven police officers who would watch over the festivities, and the extra pay came out of the student's budget. The way JJ handled making money in the past was holding concerts in Martin Luther King Jr. Park and people paid ten dollars a head to sit on the greens, the main part of the park that the city cordoned off for the festivities. The concert happened in the spring, and the previous year he took in nearly five hundred thousand dollars, and all he did was cover other people's music. Nate gave a fifteen-minute comedic show. Tommy covered three Prince songs. Johnny played some Bob Dylan songs. Peppermint did Madonna, Britney, and a couple of Rick James' songs. JJ did the rest.

The school used a portion of the money to augment teacher's salaries, and another portion of the money purchased the hardly usable computer lab. If not for Rachel Ballard, the computers wouldn't work at all, but she installed Linux on them instead of dealing with the more expensive, retail operating system, and now the students used them non-stop. But whenever JJ involved himself in helping out his fellow students, he always did it with heart. That was the main reason he felt a certain negative way that Peppermint didn't have any trust in his abilities.

At Home…

Peppermint and JJ stood in the hallway outside their perspective apartments. It was cold in the hallway, but he didn't mind as long as he was with his fiancee. "We'll head back around five-ish," She said. "It will give us an opportunity for any last minute business."

He placed his hands on her waist, looked her in the eyes, and said, "Okay." He kissed her on the lips for a long time.

She looked into his eyes for a moment and smiled. "Don't start nothing and there won't be nothing," she said sheepishly. He laughed, and then she looked down at her watch, and said, "No. We don't have enough time, JJ."

"Okay," he said. He walked into his Mother's apartment, past his mother, and into his bedroom. Immediately, he moved the mouse to his computer, signed into it, and looked at a map of what appeared to be Gotham. It had a red dot moving about the map, and he watched it closely. "What are you doing, GK?" He said to himself. Unbeknownst to GK, JJ placed a tracker in his suit, so he could hone in on his location. He had another one on his phone. Rachel Ballard gave him the equipment when he brought to her attention about GK's heart issues, and how he seemed to be testing nature's powers.

On his bed was the device he used to heal GK, and he had it sitting on the bed like it wasn't important. Quickly, he took a shower, lotioned up, and doused on some cologne, and then tried to click on a satellite image of GK racing through Gotham. At one point, he'd just stand atop some building, and then he would swoop down into an alleyway. It appeared that he simply patrolled the area, but that wasn't his major concern. What worried him the most was somebody with powers who GK couldn't handle. Although he never really had too many problems in taking out metahumans, he thought there was always that one with extraordinary abilities that he wouldn't be able to handle.

Suddenly, his computer died. The screen went completely blank, and he smelled a slight burning odor that permeated throughout the entire room. Frustrated, he sniffed the back of the computer, and the horrible smell hit him directly in the face. He screamed, "Damn, Computer!" In the background, he heard something unraveling, and when he turned to the black case, two small computers exited the case, and one of them spoke. They hovered by his head.

"Colonel, I am a Doraxian Palm Computer," it said in a woman's voice, "I am assigned to you."

He walked around the devices for a moment and looked at them closely. "Do y'all have names?" JJ asked.

"I'm Orion," the female computer said. A blue light was on in front of the computer. The casing around it looked solid, water resistant, and strong. It appeared to be a serious piece of machinery.

"I'm Veo, father. I mean, Colonel," the other computer said. "I am assigned to Peppermint Johnson."

"I need to call Peppermint," JJ said, "This is incredible."

Suddenly, he heard her voice coming from Orion. "What?" She asked on the computer. He did take notice of how terse she was with him, and on some levels, he was bothered by how she had treated him lately. He didn't know why she acted shortly with him.

"Get over here," he said. "I have something you need to see."

"I'm getting dress," she said. "I don't want to be late."

"Now, Peppermint," he said.

She stormed into his room, and she had her shoes off, hair partially fixed, and wearing only the corset portion of her dress. "What do you want, baby?"

"We have friends," he said as he turned his eyes towards the Palm Computers.

"Peppermint, I am Veo," the computer said, "I am assigned to you."

"Is this a joke?" She asked.

Orion put an image of the Green Witch in the middle of the room, and both of them recognized her. It was an unexpected move by the computer, and it made JJ nervous when it moved from its current position to the middle of the room. The Green Witch wore her Golden Knight uniform and stood in front of them with her hands behind her back. The holographic image of the Green Witch spoke to them for a moment.

"Listen, guys. I'm giving you two your Palm Computers that will help you in all your endeavors. Peppermint, you're now in the fourth month of your pregnancy, and things are about to change for you. You two are family and have always had the strongest bond I've ever seen in my life. There's a criminal element named Perilous Pearl, a shapeshifter, and a time manipulator who wants Mister Wayne and Vera Reese dead. Vivian, a metahuman from twenty-seventy has already informed Rip Hunter of the Time Bureau about Perilous Pearl, but she's evasive."

"But why is she doing this?" JJ asked.

"She had orders to kill T'Nalia and me, and the reward for that was a little over four billion dollars," she said, "The General made an attempt to wipe her out with an ES missile. He hit her ship, and it went down on a small star in the Dark Corridor. After she freed herself, she traveled back to twenty-seventeen. I suspect she's already in Gotham. When you capture her, bring her to the Time Bureau. The Palm Computers will help you locate the bureau because they exist outside your understanding of time." She paused for a moment, pressed a button on what looked like a control panel, and then an image of the darkest woman he had ever seen in his life appeared. Her silver hair was straight, long, and beautiful. She was like midnight. "This is Perilous Pearl, a beautiful creature, and my first mentor." A look of frustration came on her face, and then she said, "You must let your mental powers grow, JJ. You must use your telepathy and master that skill. Perilous Pearl is from a planet called Vordia. She's a powerful telepath. She doesn't die easily. If you take her leg, she'll grow another one. The only thing she can't grow back is her head."

"Why us?" Peppermint asked. "This is a huge burden on two sixteen-year-olds."

"Colonel, you have your orders," the Green Witch said. "Do what you're told. You chose to be heroes, so be heroes. Niona McGinnis out."

"Good lord," JJ said, "Was that a recording or was it live?"

"It was a recording, sir," Orion said.

When Peppermint turned around for the door, her Palm Computer slid into an opening on her dress and then turned itself off. "Oh! That's cool," she said.

At the dance…

JJ stood at the threshold of the auditorium with his lovely Peppermint, and they were dressed in the classical fifty style clothing. He had on the high water jeans with the slick black hair, and muscular arms flexing through a white t-shirt. In the front pocket of his jeans, he kept his Palm Computer. The acoustic guitar hung from his back like a Rock N Roll legend. It was only five-thirty in the afternoon, and only a few students roamed the auditorium, but they were all dressed like nineteen fifties big boppers and teenage teenie boppers. Nate stood at the turntables, and played a song called, "Little Queenie."

Peppermint and JJ ran into the middle of the floor, twisting and a turning, and dancing like they lived in the nineteen fifties. All the students in the gymnasium rocked back and forth as the cute, teen couple danced in the middle of the large auditorium. He twirled her around and around and twisted from side to side. After the song ended, it segued into a Fat Domino's song called, "I Hear You Knocking."

JJ and Peppermint strolled down the floor to the sound of the music. They were faced in the same direction but swayed opposite of each other to the beat of the music. They spun around, and then out of nowhere, they started doing a Boogie Woogie Swing Dance that had everybody in the gymnasium flocking around them.

Nate walked from behind the turntable, turned to Vera, and they began dancing around the room. He stepped back from her during the chorus, and said, "I hear you knocking, but you can't come in." Vera blushed at all the attention he gave her, and JJ laughed because he had never seen Nate with such a big smile on his face.

After a few dancier songs, Nate put on a song as the auditorium began to fill with students. It was another Fat Domino's song called, "I Want To Walk You Home." The kids mingled with each other and rocked back and forth. A photographer took pictures of the couples while they sat in the automobile in the center of the room.

Nate pointed over to JJ and had a big smile on his face as he began to shake his head. He played The Coaster's song called, "Yakety Yak." The entire group of kids started dancing back and forth on the dance floor and twirling each other around. It was everything he wanted it to be. He ran up to the stage, and behind him was his band, "Black Mold." As soon as Nate lowered the volume on "Yakety Yak," he began playing, "School Days" He strummed the guitar, and began to sing like he wrote the song. All the students danced while looking up at the stage, and Peppermint was on the keyboard that produced the swing beat. They drank punch, ate ice cream, smacked on cotton candy, and all the things students liked.

When he started singing, "Sweet Little Sixteen," all the ladies made a huge circle on the dance floor and competed with their swing moves. It was an incredible scene as they danced in the nineteen-fifties swing style. Everybody seemed to be having a blast, and JJ felt good about talking the student body into doing a Chuck Berry Theme Halloween Party, but with all the dancing, having fun, and the security not having to stop fights, he felt like the entire night went better than planned.

But about ten o'clock, JJ took the stage again, and played "Johnny B. Goode." He danced back and forth on the stage, and the students still had a mountain of energy for the Halloween Party Tribute to Chuck Berry. As he hit the last few bars, he looked up and saw a figure standing in the doorway of the auditorium. It was Barbara Gordon, and immediately he knew something was wrong. Cutting the song short, he raced through the crowd, and Nate immediately put on another wonderful song.

"What are you doing here?" JJ asked with a serious look on his face.

"It's Bruce," she said, "He called me around eight o'clock saying he was under attack by a powerful Sapphire." Closely, he watched her every move and looked down at her feet. It was a habit he needed to break, but he could ascertain a lot about an opponent by the way they stood.

He walked into the hallway of the school, and then said, "How did you get here so fast?"

"I'm Batgirl," she said. "I have excess to the Bat Jet."

"I'll go to Gotham, and see if I can find him," he said with a grimace. "I'm not sure why a Sapphire would attack GK." He ran over to Peppermint, and said, "We have to go."

"What's going on?" She asked. "We still have a few songs to play."

"Johnny can do it," JJ said.

"I haven't seen Johnny," she said.

He told Nate that he had to leave early, and wouldn't be able to play the last four songs of the night.

"I'll just play them from the mp3s I have," he said, "Don't worry about it."

Gotham: Eleven O'Clock PM…

The town smelled bad. Trash overran the poor parts of Gotham. Children played up and down the foggy streets, and it shocked JJ because it was late, a Friday night, and predators were everywhere. It rained earlier, and it soaked the streets. Some areas flooded a bit, but Fifth Street looked okay. The stench antagonized him. It was Gotham, and it smelled awful. Gotham always smelled bad because Gotham's sin lived underneath the city. The outcast, the indigent, the unwanted-all lived in Gotham's sewers, and they all played some chord on the sex-slave guitar. It was a crowded area, and every kind of miscreant roamed the street looking for trouble.

Peppermint and JJ walked along Fifth Street, a crime-ridden side of town, and they had Orion following behind them. He had the black, medical case in a backpack as he held hands with his fiance while on the walk. "I'm tracking the tracker, and it's underneath the ground in this area."

"Orion, what's the quickest way underneath the street?" Peppermint asked.

"There's a manhole cover approximately three hundred feet north," she said, "That will lead to him."

"Orion, find him immediately, check his status, and report back," JJ ordered.

"Yes, sir," the Palm Computer said.

JJ watched the computer lift up the manhole cover, and then he looked over at Peppermint, and said, "Incredible." The device went out of his sight, and he hoped that it would find GK quickly. Across from his position set a women's clinic, and for some reason, it looked insidious. He didn't quite understand why he felt something was off about the clinic, but he felt like it preyed on the people in the area. Every building in the sector looked worn and somewhat dilapidated, but not the clinic. Of all the buildings in the district, it didn't look like a rundown establishment. The way it sparkled in the middle of so much trash and death JJ thought the government owned it. He looked up at the Gotham skyline for a moment because he thought he saw a flicker.

The computer resurfaced, and said, "Come quickly."

JJ and Peppermint flew down in the hole and flew with the Palm Computer. When they came into a large room, they ran into about thirty people living in a shanty town. It smelled like urine and human feces all over the place; it was unbearable. He hadn't seen so many indigent people in one location in his entire life. He met plenty of poor people through the years, but nothing like what he saw in front of his eyes. They didn't have anything except the clothes on their backs, and they were in tatters. Over forty people had pup-tents around the entire area. Wedged in the far corner of the room, out of sight of all the inhabitants, GK bled and shivered from the immense pain. He had a gash in his midsection that tore through his uniform, and JJ didn't expect him to last long with a wound like his.

"It's okay, GK," JJ said. "You're with friends now." He helped him out of the corner and sat him on the ground. He pulled out the medical device, and it healed him like it did all the other times.

"I was attacked by a Bounty Hunter," he said, "She moved like nothing I've ever seen in my life."

JJ looked at him for a moment as the old man lay on the ground. "She's from another world and from about fifty years in the future."

"What does she want with me?" GK asked. "It seemed personal."

"You play a role in the future like the rest of us," Peppermint said, "It's the way it is."

"What's that?" GK asked as pointed to the computer hovering behind him.

"My name is Orion, Mister Wayne," the computer said. "The being that attacked you is a very powerful Sapphire. It's important you use all necessary precautions as long she's in this time. She also knows your real identity."

"Orion, can you make an educated guess on where Perilous Pearl will attack next?" JJ asked.

"National City," she said. "Looking at the extent of GK"s injuries, she probably thought he'd die of his wounds. She won't kill her prey immediately. All the data on her tells me she likes to play with her prey."

"Orion, access GK's utility belt and give him a detailed copy of Perilous Pearl's information. We need to know as much about her as possible."

"GK, I have a tracking device in your uniform," JJ said, "I implore you not to remove it. I put it there because of this very situation."

"So, you're just invading my privacy?"

Orion laughed. "I detect you're tracking JJ, GK."

"So, everybody's tracking everybody," GK said. "Good!"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Nate sat at home, in his bedroom, and listened to some slow songs on his phone. It was already dark outside, and daylight savings time ended a week earlier. He had a picture of Vera on his computer screen; it was taken by JJ when all of them went to the zoo. She looked like a nun: black dress, white shirt, black scarf over her head, and no makeup. To him, she was the perfect specimen of God. He couldn't be like JJ and act all atheistic, dark, and without religion. He was the coolest person in the whole school, but he often wondered if JJ had a soul.

Since Halloween, he tried to spend as much time with Vera as possible. He often went over her house, sat with her family during dinner, and held her as she fell asleep in his arms, but JJ and Peppermint were always there. On Halloween night, he came up to her on the dance floor, and asked,"So, will you be my girlfriend?"

She smiled, pressed her head against his chest, and then said, "Hell yes."

But every time he tried to have a one on one with Vera, JJ made sure he showed his face. He popped up out of nowhere and made sure Nate wasn't accosting her in any kind of way. If JJ wasn't standing in the way of him and Vera, then it was Peppermint, and she was much more direct about it than JJ.

He texted Vera in the hopes she would meander her way to his house while his Momma traveled to Star City with her church group. Every time she went away with the church, it gave him an opportunity to have free reign of the house. He ate what he wanted to eat when he wanted to eat it. His Momma was from India, but his father grew up in National City, and he was a tenebrous, black man from the streets who tried to do better with his life. He worked on the National City Police Department but died in the line of duty. A nascent street gang who called themselves the Jokers took him out with a bullet to the back of the head, and it nearly killed his Momma in the process. After that event, her only solace was in the arms of Jesus.

He recalled JJ saying on several occasions, and loud enough for his Momma to hear, "Fiction can't cure reality." He basically called the Bible fiction, and his Momma kicked him out of their house. Now, she scowled every time he dropped by the house.

He laughed for a moment. His Momma didn't care too much for Vera either, and they had several fights about her. She was a dark-skinned woman from India, and she didn't necessarily like her son being involved with a Caucasian girl. She explained to him that she had no culture, and she was nothing more than a spectator. This all happened right before she went on her church trip.

"Listen, son, as soon she acquires some money, she'll move out of this area, and forget about all this," she said with a grimace. "She doesn't have the ability to love Little Africa. It's not in her DNA."

"She's a nice girl, Momma," he said with a grimace. "It's just high school."

She smirked at him for a moment and folded her arms. "I've tried to find the positives in you dating her," she said with a grimace. "It's hard when thinking about the racism in this society. It will always be an uphill battle for you, son."

Vera's Text:

Come by and get me. That's the only way I'm coming over.

End Text

Nate's Text

Okay!

End Text

When he arrived at her house, she answered the door with her hair in ringlets. Her face shined with a regal grace, and she had on just a smidgen of makeup. It almost seemed like Peppermint dressed her. She had on her Gothic dress but looked like an innocent vampire. Stepping out onto the porch, she sat on the porch swing and looked up at the beautiful moon. "There's nothing more beautiful than a good looking moon."

"It's nice," he said with a smile. He reached over, placed his hand on the back of her neck, and kissed her gently.

"So, do you want to hang, go out to eat, or what?" She asked.

"Eat," he said. "Maybe stop by my house later."

Running over to the door, she opened it, and said, "Let's go, Y'all."

"Fine," JJ and Peppermint said.

He paused for a moment, and in the back of his mind, he said, "Dammit!" He didn't realize JJ was over at her house, and everybody looked like vampires except for him. He had on some casual clothes that a normal person would wear, and everybody else looked like creatures of the night. They all had on their Gothic wear with black collars around their necks.

JJ walked up to him while Peppermint and Vera were way back in the rear, opened up the black backpack hanging off his shoulders, and pulled out a box of rubbers. "Don't think I don't know what you had planned, Nate. As soon as she said you wanted her to come over, I stopped everything, and ran over to her house." He placed the condoms in his hands, and said, "I swear to nature that if you get her pregnant you'll regret it."

He shook his head for a brief moment, and said, "So, you're being a hypocrite!"

"You really think this thing you have with Vera is comparable to Peppermint and me? You're mad!" He paused for a moment. "It's too much to explain, Nate," he said, "But don't do anything with her you'll regret."

Mickey created a dinner special called the Big Kryptonian, a dinner special with a Mickey Burger, fried green tomatoes, and a large soda pop for nine dollars and ninety-nine cents, and Nate ordered two of them. JJ and Peppermint didn't have to say what they wanted, but Mickey brought out a Mickey Burger, large fries, and a large drink, and the two shared the meal with each other. The sparsely crowded restaurant had all the familiar faces, and Cindy X walked into the eatery and gave Nate a nasty look, and he knew exactly why: she had been running a website and radio show opposed to interracial relationships.

"So, what do you like to do?" Nate asked of Vera. She sat across from him while JJ sat across from Peppermint. "Do you like to swim?"

She smiled. "Haven't been. Ever."

He gave her a good stare because he didn't know why she hadn't ever been swimming. "Usually, I just swim at the local Boys Club, but I've dipped my feet in National City's Lake a few times."

JJ looked over at him, smirked, and then said, "You shouldn't even be alive. I've seen you jump off the bridge into the lake twice."

"Okay. Okay," he said, "I just don't want to brag."

Vera smiled. "You can brag to me."

Peppermint smirked while looking down at her phone for a second, and then showed the screen to JJ, but Nate couldn't see what was happening.

"I'm not braggadocio," he said.

"Me either," she said. She laughed for a moment, and then said, "JJ, on the other hand…"

"What?" He asked.

"It's true," Peppermint said. "JJ loves bragging."

He stood up, walked over to the window, and peered outside. "What's up with JJ?" Nate asked Peppermint.

"Oh! He's looking for an old friend of the family," she said. "His aunt Pearl is in the area."

JJ walked over to the table, sat down, and Mickey brought out all the food. As soon as the food came to the table, Johnny walked into the eatery, and almost walked past the crew.

"Johnny, have a seat?" JJ asked. "Just pull up a chair to the table."

"Oh! I didn't see you guys," he said. "I'm famished." He looked over his right shoulder, and asked, "Mickey, can I get a cheeseburger, fries, and a soda pop?"

"When are you going to find a lady?" Peppermint asked Johnny. "There's like a school full of girls."

He looked over at Cindy X in the booth across the way, and she said, "Don't even look this way. I don't play that."

"See. That's why," he said. "A white boy like me is having a helluva time pulling some tail."

"Cindy! You can't sit with us?" JJ asked. "We used to all be friends until last year."

"I need time to work on me," she said in a serious tone. "I don't have time for all this." She pointed to Nate and Vera.

At Nates…

Nate and Vera sat on the couch in his home and JJ and Peppermint went home, and now it was well past twelve o'clock in the morning. He thought of JJ as a colossal time waster, and he did it on purpose to stand in his way.

"What's the deal with you and JJ?" He asked. "It's like he doesn't want you to have a boyfriend."

She smiled while she sat on the couch, and said, "He wants to ensure I'm safe."

"I want to be your man," he said.

She paused for a moment, and replied, "He's like a brother to me, and no matter what, I'm not willing to change that for anybody. I went through a lot of things over the years. JJ and Peppermint were like the only solid friends in my life."

"I see," he said. "I'm just trying to understand."

Nate turned on the television, placed it on some horror movies, and then grabbed some blankets from his bedroom. He moved the mahogany coffee table out the way, and they laid down on the floor, watched television, and snuggled. She had on her Gothic dress, and in the front of his mind, he wanted her to take it off. She lay next to him, buttocks facing him, and watched television.

The lights of the living room shined brighter than ever on the young couple as they lay in the middle of the floor. Nate made an inept attempt to watch television as Vera's butt pressed against his lower abdomen. He felt the warmth from her body, and it aroused him. Gently, he turned her mouth towards him and softly kissed her on the lips. The curvature of her soft kissers fit perfectly with his, and their tongues swirled with harmony. After only a few minutes, Nate and Vera morph into an entangled web of human flesh: white and black body parts fighting for a comfortable place to rest. He hadn't known the taste of a woman or had breast pressed against his chest in his life. He lived for his music but didn't have a body like JJ: strong and fit—and muscular. He stared at her face—directly into her eyes—to ascertain her comfort level. He felt her heart racing and hoped their journey into a sexual relationship moved at an acceptable pace.

When he looked in the mirror at himself earlier in the day, he saw his flabby, tenebrous skin, wavy black hair, and brown eyes as a curse. His large belly protruded outwardly further than he liked, but he had no desire to exercise it off. He cupped her right breast with his right hand; it felt like soft cushions—heavenly. Her nipples fought to be noticed through her black dress, and he couldn't help himself when it came to tracing them with his right index finger. He pressed lightly but heavy enough to arouse them and to feel every part of her well-built chest. Sliding his right hand down the back of her dress, he traced her panties and wanted to remove them badly. Her ankle length skirt crept up to her calves, and he slid his right hand all the way down to her calves, gently moved the skirt in an upwards direction until he exposed her black panties. Since she didn't demonstrate any signs of resisting, he continued to bring the dress over her head until she sat in front of him with only her bra and panties.

"Turn the lights off," Vera said softly. He hopped to his feet, ran over to the light switch, and turned it off. He then took off his pants and stood in front of her in his underwear. His erection stuck pretty much straight into the air, and he didn't seem to have any control over it. He reached into his right pants pocket, pulled out a condom, and then laid it on the ground next to her. She picked it up for a moment, and then set it back down on the ground. The television was the only light in the living room. Immediately, he noticed her flawless stomach and began kissing it slowly. Laying back on the ground, he worked his way up to her breast, and quickly unhooked her bra from the front. He suspected that she would have attractive and ample breast, but her's were miraculously generous. Her nipples, prominent and strong, stared him in the face, and he suckled the left one and then the right one, and then he realized he didn't know what he was doing, but he acted like he did.

When he removed her panties, he realized she prepared for the evening just as much as he did because she trimmed her lady parts. His manhood was like a steel beam, and he felt so much pressure that he thought he'd release just from brushing up against her. His bulge protruded outwardly, and he stood on his knees with his left thumb in the waistband of his underwear. Pulling down his underwear, he moved it out and over his phallus, past his thighs, and off his feet. He wrestled with the condom for a moment, slid it over his erection, and once he had it on, he crawled on top of her. Placing his hand around his shaft, he guided it between her legs until it slid into her, and her entire body tensed up. She wouldn't let him go past the tip. Softly, he kissed her on the lips, but she didn't let him move forward for almost five minutes. "Okay," she said in his right ear, and then he lunged his penis deep into her vulva, and she held on to him tightly as he worked his man business around and around. He didn't have more than fifteen strokes before he unloaded and filled up the condom.

"Was that it?" She asked.

"No," he said. "It's just that I wanted you so badly that I couldn't contain myself." He pulled off the rubber full of semen, tied it in a knot, and then placed it in the trash. Immediately, he put on another condom, and Vera continued to lay on the floor, and he climbed on her again. They rolled around on the floor until she ended up on top, and she wasn't able to push down on him too hard because it hurt her too badly. He kept pushing upwards, and every time he did, she looked like it hurt her. He turned her over onto her stomach and entered her doggy style—and then back to the missionary position. He felt her finally climax underneath him, and then he did the same right after her. The whole event lasted a little over an hour.

Vera lay next to him—bare and beautiful—but when she reached for her underwear, he said, "Is it okay to sleep like this? I just want to lay here nude with you." She placed her underwear on the ground and laid in his arms the entire night.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

November 13, 2018

Nate and Vera walked to school holding hands, and she talked almost the whole way about theories on genetic research. For a few months, he had been trying to talk to her on a personal level, and it felt nice to have her open up to him. She attended all the upper-level classes like JJ and Peppermint, but she still had to do a full day of school work. He couldn't believe she let him have her any way he wanted for the entire weekend, and it felt good. When he arrived on the school's campus, JJ and Peppermint stood by the back fence, and her stomach bulged. It was obvious she was pregnant. Besides, JJ had his hands on her belly and enjoyed every time the baby moved in her stomach. When Nate and Vera walked up to them, JJ said, "You two smell like shame and semen."

Nate smelled his hands, and then Peppermint said, "You're so credulous."

"Y'all make a nice looking couple," JJ said.

"Thank you," Vera said with a huge smile on her face.

When Nate and Vera walked down the hill, they ran into Johnny, and then Johnny and Nate gave each other a manly hug.

Vera walked off, and said, "Heading to the computer lab, babe."

"Okay," he said. Vera walked into the building, and she wore a black skirt, white top, white socks, and black shoes. She dressed similarly to Peppermint. Actually, several people in the school dressed in Gothic clothing, but JJ and Peppermint did so almost every day.

"So, you're officially dating Vera?" Johnny asked with a straight face. "I thought she was beneath you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked with a grimace.

"Nothing," he said. "You know how everybody used to ridicule her until JJ was ready to kill people over her." He smiled for a moment, and then said, "You should really be careful with those white girls though. I'm white, so I know."

"What do you mean?" Nate asked calmly.

"Most of the time. Now I'm not saying this about Vera. I'm just saying most of the time white girls mess with black guys for fetish reasons or daddy issues only."

"JJ and Peppermint don't act like a fetish," he said.

"Dude! You're talking about apples and oranges. Peppermint is Asian. She's not white."

Pained and bewildered—and hurt, he sat on the front steps of the school for most of the day and thought about what Johnny said about white girls fetishizing black guys, and of course, it worried him. He didn't have anything against white women who desired black men for sex only, but he didn't want that to be the case with Vera. He wanted a real relationship with her, and not something considered abnormal or on the fringes of society. What bothered him the most was Johnny took away his good feeling about the weekend. In only a few words, he doubted everything about what he enjoyed about Vera, and then he came back to his reality, to his belief that what she liked about him was much more than a mere fetish. He had known Johnny since second grade, and he couldn't imagine his best friend would act insidiously, so he must have been telling the truth.

He finally went to class during the second period, and Johnny and he sat on the back row. Looking over at Nate, he said, "Man! Your girlfriend was hanging all over Ralph Taylor." He came out of nowhere with the accusation and it caught him off guard. He just sat in his chair looking at Johnny with suspicious eyes while at the same time seething over the thought that Vera wrapped her legs around another student while dating him.

"What do you mean?" Nate asked. He put a lot of bass in his voice because the mere suggestion that his girlfriend cheated on him made him angry. For a moment, he thought he could easily look past Johnny's accusatory statements, but he couldn't. He wasn't mature enough to handle those kinds of statements.

"I'm saying people are going to think you're a punk if you keep letting people disrespect you like that," he said with an insidious smile. "I'm just saying." He shook his head back and forth as if to say the thoughts in his head about the situation were unbelievable and incomprehensible.

"Personally, I think you're misreading the situation," he said. "There's no way she's interested in Ralph Taylor."

"Think about? There're only a few white boys in this school," he said, "Ralph, me, and about six other students. She's probably looking to hang with her own kind. Nothing wrong with that. Birds of a feather are all I'm saying. It's basic logic that she'd want to be with her own kind."

After school, Nate walked up to Vera and kissed her in dramatic fashion in front of everybody in the hallway. "Missed you."

"I missed you too," she said with an awkward smile on her face. "My instructors piled on the homework today. It's a crazy amount." Nate abruptly put his right arm around her waist and held her close to him. It was a tad forceful. "Ouch, Nate. You're squeezing me too hard."

"Sorry about that," he said, "Just missed you. So, you're saying you won't be hanging?" He asked.

"My studies are so important to me," she said, "I have to get into a good college, so I can make a difference in the world." She looked over at him for a moment, and their eyes met. "I'm not trying to ignore you or anything. I just think you should know that. Your company is very important to me, but so are my studies."

"You can study over my house," he said.

She laughed. "You'll be nudging me for sex every fifteen minutes," she said as if she lacked confidence in her words. Her hands were clasped to her front, and she kind of rocked back and forth as she spoke. "I'll never get anything done, Nate, because I'll be giving you sex every fifteen minutes."

Nate's Home:

Frustrated, he lay on the couch in his living room and tried to gather his thoughts. He attempted to go to sleep for a moment, but couldn't. He had so many possibilities on his mind that he couldn't control himself, and he didn't understand all the negative thoughts racing around in his mind. He laid his head on the arm of the couch, and tears rolled down his face. Due to one simple fact, Johnny filled his head with so much negative information about white girls, he knew her intentions weren't good. He found some kind of idiotic comfort in the fact he imagined her cheating on him. It was a painful, but mildly enjoyable thought because he kept envisioning his large, black hands around her throat.

He looked down at the floor where they engaged in coitus, and for a moment, he became aroused over it. He imagined her soft, coconut smell and nice, peach flavored shampoo. Her pheromones were strong, and just the thought of her perspiring during coitus excited him. The way her body smelled, the way she enjoyed it, and the way she clamped her feet around his waist—the memory of all that aroused him. He ejaculated into a paper towel and then threw the semen soaked cloth into the trash. Suddenly, after he relieved his stress, he felt an onslaught of guilt that overwhelmed him. He hated the thoughts he had about Vera and the fact he didn't trust her. And then for a little while, he was able to collect his thoughts and focus on the positive for a moment. He pulled out his cell phone and called up JJ.

Telephone Call:

Nate: I'm insecure about my relationship with Vera, man. Something just doesn't feel right. It's like I'm going crazy.

JJ: She's studying with Peppermint and me right now. I can promise you she's crazy about you too, man. She won't shut up about you.

Vera in the background: Is that Nate?

Nate: Oh! Are you at home?

JJ: Yeah. Vera wants you to come over.

Nate: Okay.

End of Call

Nate looked down at his watch, a plain watch from the local market, and it was only seven o'clock in the evening. He felt Vera slighted him by going over JJ's house, but deep down he knew that wasn't the case. For some strange reason, he carried a lot of angry thoughts about her for no apparent reason, but he always thought she had secrets. The evil thoughts popped into his head from nowhere, and he was feckless in stopping them. He stood in his living room, with the television off, and thought about how he'd act once he arrived at JJ's house. Every scenario had him reacting negatively to the situation, and he didn't understand why he felt the need to express his feelings. It almost felt like an outside force pushed him into a mood that made him prone to aggressive behavior towards his friends.

He even felt uneasy at school when Vera kept asking him about his favorite musical instrument. He told her, "I like the Kala Rumbler Fretted Acoustic-Electric U-Bass Natural Mahogany Ukulele," he said with a smile. He remembered his father playing one for him when he was a little kid. His Momma had to sell it to keep the lights turned on right after his death, and before the life insurance money arrived. "I cried for months over that Ukulele," he said while he sat in the Cafeteria with Vera. "A new one is over four hundred dollars."

Remembering back to the ninth-grade, the band instructor, Mister Bannister died of a massive heart attack right before the school's huge band contest. JJ and some other students worked hard to raise money to enter the competition, but with the death of Mister Bannister, the school tried to pull out of it, but there weren't any refunds. He got all the students together, an old uncle who had a permit to drive a bus, and they traveled to Gotham City and played. JJ brought his four, inexpensive ukuleles on the trip, and Peppermint, Tommy, Nate, and Johnny—all played them during a very sophisticated piece of music that required a violin according to the original score sheet.

"What are you doing?" Johnny asked.

"Just play it," he said with a grimace. "They expect us to be ghetto as fuck, but we're going to show them some Little Africa magic."

"Oh my gawd," Peppermint said. "You're going to hip-hop up classical music?" She asked. "Gotham's going to run us out of town on a rail, JJ." He reached into the back seat on the bus, and pulled out all the Gothic clothing: wigs, blouses, and pants, and said, "Put it on."

When they took the stage, JJ stood on the podium with a fiddle and began to play something extremely exotic with a lot of feeling that set the mood. He danced around gracefully, and all the years of ballet finally had a place for him. On the sheet, he actually wrote, "The Foreplay" for the solo, and then after two minutes of play, the ukuleles accompanied him, and the sound was unique and beautiful—and robust. The other bands crowded into the auditorium to watch the poor kids play a bastardized version of a classical piece, and when the actual feel of the Fifth could be understood, it was almost climatic, and the crowd rose to their feet. After the song finished, JJ looked at Nate, and said, "That was for your father, dawg."

He grabbed his jacket, wallet off the table, and headed out the front door, but didn't expect to see Johnny standing on the street corner. With his hands in his pockets, smoking on an electric cigarette, he said, "Shoot! I don't know what's going on between Vera and Mark Kinsey." He took a long drag off his electronic cigarette and then blew the smoke into the air. He had his right hand in his pocket, and then said, "They're acting all secretive and shit."

Nate looked up at him for a moment, and then said, "She wouldn't do that."

"Maybe not," he said, "But Mark's one of those pretty boys. Girls have weaknesses for the pretty ones." Nate took off down the street, and left Johnny on the corner when his old friend screamed, "Protect your heart, dawg! Protect your heart."

The night was dark and cold and possibly the coldest night of the fall so far. He didn't wear any gloves, and he tried to keep his hands warm by putting them in his pockets. His flimsy jacket didn't give him any comfort, so he started running. He ran until he was about a block from JJ's apartment complex, and then officer Lee came out of a back alley and tripped him. He fell on his knees, and the pain rushed through his entire body. He then fell onto his side and held his knees.

"Where're you running?" He asked with a grimace.

"You see me all the damn time, Officer Lee," he said, "You didn't need to do that."

A young girl came from out of the back alley wearing a short, jean skirt. She had dirt on her backside, and her hair went in every direction on her head. She wore obvious signs of trauma on her face. "Just go home, Sharon," he said. "Meet back here tomorrow."

"You should be ashamed of yourself," Nate said with a grimace. He looked up at the old, Asian cop with a scowl on his face. "You've fathered over forty kids in this area."

"It's not like it matters," he said. "Nobody is going to stop me because nobody gives a damn about your black asses. I could put a bullet in your head right now, and I'll get a fucking medal for it." He laughed, walked down the street, and Nate lay on the ground looking up at the sky.

He wanted to kill Officer Lee for what he did to Little Africa. He raped hundreds of women, and nobody dared to stand in his way. Constantly, he thought about buying a gun, walking up to Officer Lee, and putting a bullet in his head. He didn't care who saw him. It was only minutes later that he found himself refocusing on Vera, and then he finished the rest of his trek to JJ's apartment.

JJ's Apartment…

The smell of spicy, chicken fried rice permeated throughout the entire apartment complex, and when he walked inside, everybody sat at the dinner table eating, including JJ's momma. JJ, Peppermint, and Vera sat at the table in sweats, socks, and football jerseys like it were some kind of sleepover. It wasn't a sleepover, but a study party, and it happened several times a week, but he didn't readily know about it.

"You want something to eat?" JJ asked. "There's more in the kitchen. Just fix yourself a plate."

"I'll do it," Vera said as she raced into the kitchen to fix him a plate. "Go ahead and wash your hands, and I'll get your food," she said with a smile.

Nate washed his hands, and everything she did for him was contrary to what Johnny said about her. She didn't act like she wanted to be with anybody else, and he felt confused. JJ's Momma walked into the kitchen, placed her dishes in the sink, and then walked back into the living room.

"I'm heading out," she said. "Stay out of trouble, guys."

"Yes, ma'am," Vera said as she laid Nate's plate on the table.

He walked into the living room, sat down at the table, smelled the food, and then said, "It really smells good." Vera looked at him for a moment, and then he took a bite. When he smiled after the first bite, Vera looked back down at her food and began to eat with him.

"Are you ready to turn seventeen next week?" JJ asked.

He looked up from his plate, over at JJ, and said, "It's hard to believe that the twentieth is next week."

"Wait? Nate, what happened to your pants legs," Peppermint asked. "You look like you fell."

He looked down at the abrasions on his pants for a moment, and then said, "That damn Lee tripped me as I was running down the street."

"I hate him," Vera said. "He's raped so many women."

"The NCPD allowed him to run rampant in Little Africa," Peppermint said. "The entire police department is a gang of criminals."

"I just realized something," JJ said.

"What's that?" Vera asked.

"The human race is doomed," he said, "The powers that be allowed him to rape hundreds of women in supposedly the greatest nation in the world."

"If we're the greatest nation in the world, then what's happening in the rest of the world?" Nate asked. He immediately noticed JJ was serious. "The human race isn't really doomed is it?"

"If the greatest nation cares nothing about the rape of women, then I don't see any hope for it," he said as he looked over at Peppermint.

Nate looked over at Vera, and asked, "What's up with you and Mark Kinsey?"

"Mark! He's just an old friend," she said.

"Mark's father made all my guitars," JJ said.

"Yeah. He made my two guitars with JJ's face on them," Peppermint said. "I don't bring them out the house though. I mean those things cost a lot of money."

"It's just I heard a rumor that you and Mark have something going on," Nate said with a serious look on his face.

Vera laughed for a moment.

"It's not funny," Nate said with an elevated voice.

"Calm down, Nathan," JJ said. "There's nothing going on between Mark and Vera. She's with you, and nobody else."

"Why are you speaking for her?" He asked.

"You know what?" Peppermint said. "You need to leave, calm down, and then we'll see you at school tomorrow."

"She's right," Vera said. "I've put all my feelings into us, and I don't want it to come crashing down over a silly rumor. Just go, and we'll talk about it later?"

JJ walked over to the door, opened it, and said, "Go home, Nate."

When Nate walked outside in the cold, he didn't know what to do. Everything happened so quickly between him and Vera, and if he stayed any longer, he felt he might have attacked her. He wanted to hurt her badly, and he didn't know why. His tension headache pushed on all sides of his frontal lobe, and he wanted to scream loudly. A voice in his mind continued to tell him to take care of JJ, Peppermint, and Vera in the most egregious way possible.

"I hate them," he said to himself as he meandered down the street. He was so angry that the cold no longer bothered him. When he reached the end of the block, Johnny stood in front of him with a smirk on his face.

"What happened?" He asked while smiling.

"They kicked me out," he said.

Johnny smirked. "It's because JJ wants both girls to himself." He laughed. "He called you a simp earlier today." He said, "Now, Nate knows how my penis taste. It was crass. JJ has that crassness about him that only a few people ever see."

Nate scoffed, but he felt bad nonetheless. He looked at Johnny, and said, "He's never used that kind of language. Never."

The next morning—around seven o'clock in the morning—JJ walked up to Nate, and said, "I don't know what world you're living in, Nate, but you better find some control in your life. You either want to be with Vera or you don't. Just don't put your hands on her."

"I'm not," he said. "But I guess if you weren't having sex with her, I wouldn't feel this way."

JJ turned to him for a moment, and said, "How dare you speak to me like that? Vera's our dear friend, and I'm not going to stand here while you say awful things about her, Nate."

Nate grimaced, and then said, "Sorry. I misspoke." He stumbled backward into a thin, black kid, and when he turned around it was Shonny Tanaga. "Sorry, man!"

When JJ saw him, he said, "What are you doing here?"

"One of you, supercharged geeks, burned down my father's house," he said, "So, we set up shop in this shit-hole. I'm here to go to school, JJ."

Later…

Nate stood by Vera's locker right before lunch. His head throbbed in pain. No matter what, he couldn't shake off the feeling of betrayal. All he wanted to do was talk to her sensibly without JJ hovering over his back. He felt bad about how he acted the previous night, and he wanted to make it right because he didn't know why he had so much anger in his heart. The hallway smelled old and musty, and from what he could tell, splatters of dried blood graced the walls. Melvin, the security guard, walked through the hallways, but he didn't mess with anybody as long as they were quiet and not fighting.

When all the students flooded out of the classrooms, he saw Vera down the hallway with Mark. She wore her fedora with her thin-rimmed glasses, and JJ stood behind her for a moment, handed her something, and then she smiled at him. But as soon as Peppermint came up behind him, she gave a thumbs up to Vera, and she smiled hugely, and then JJ and Peppermint exited down the hallway.

Mark had his hand out to Vera. At first, she slapped him a high five, and then he said, "Quit that." He was a tall white kid, a suave kid wearing black pants, a white shirt, and slick black hair. Johnny walked over to Nate, and said, "Look at them?"

She handed him some money and he handed her a small case. He then looked down the hallway directly at Nate, and Mark slathered on a kiss to Vera that drove him insane. Immediately, he ran out the side door in a moment of rage, screaming and hollering, and ran off the school grounds. He didn't know what to do or to say to anybody at that point. His heart hurt so badly that he didn't know what to say, and he chiefly blamed JJ because he was always the one leading the pack in whatever foolishness that happened on school grounds.

He ran all the way home, stood in the living room, and his Momma walked in, and asked, "Boy! Why aren't you at school?" She was a small woman from India and had long, traditional hair with a red dot in the center of her forehead. He began to sob loudly.

"I've fallen for a girl who's breaking my heart, Momma," he said with tears rolling down his face. "I'm so angry right now. I'm mad at JJ, Peppermint, and everybody."

"Have you discussed this with JJ?" She asked. "He's always been a wise kid." She laughed a little. "Well, he's wise most of the time, but I can't condone him impregnating his girlfriend. If I had to choose any kid in Little Africa to make that mistake, then it would have been him. I know he'll make wise decisions."

He looked at his Momma with a grimace on his face, and said, "Johnny told me that JJ was messin' with Vera."

"She's your girlfriend?" She asked calmly.

"Yeah," he said. "We've been talking for a while now."

"And you believe Johnny over JJ?" She asked. "It was JJ who gave us money to pay the rent."

"Something has changed," he said.

"I saw Johnny outside the apartment the other night," she said. "He doesn't smell human. I have a nose for those things."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

James stood in the living room of his apartment, strummed on his guitar, and sang, "She Talks To Angels." He stopped for a moment and turned on the news. The reflection from the television lit up the entire room, and when he looked around the apartment for a short moment, he thought he saw something.

"Why did you stop?" JJ asked as he stared directly at James.

"Oh shit!" He exclaimed. "Can you announce yourself, JJ?"

He hopped on James' couch with an attitude like he owned James' entire apartment. He then said, "Did you read my email?" James put his guitar back in its case and clamped down the latches. He looked up at JJ for a moment with a calm visage.

"You're dealing with a time manipulator named Perilous Pearl, right?" He asked with a grimace.

"Yeah, but you're acting like it's solely my problem," he said. "She's trained and trained well and has some of the best fighting skills in the verse. She's also a level five telepath with the ability to cripple the Kryptonian mind." He walked over to the balcony, and said, "She nearly killed GK."

"But Kara's Kryptonian," he said. "She won't be any match for her raw strength."

"You keep saying that like it means something to me," he said. "Kryptonians are new to Earth, James, but not the rest of the universe. They know all about Kryptonians in the expanse, and they've developed tools to take them down." He turned back, looked at James, and said, "Think of their skin as armor, and advanced races have armor piercing weapons. There are too many aliens on this planet to not take proper precautions at all times. Kara can't merely walk around like she's indestructible."

"Ganthet took out both Clark and Kara," James said calmly. "But he's godlike with one of the strongest Lantern rings in the verse."

"Just keep a watchful eye for Perilous?" JJ asked. "I know she is around. I feel her. It's like she's trying to break my mental defenses."

James shook his head in disbelief for a moment. "It's two thirty in the afternoon, JJ," he said, "Shouldn't you be at school?"

"I'm out of school at two o'clock," he said, "Peppermint went home to rest because of the pregnancy and Vera is studying for her Calculus test tomorrow."

"What are y'all going to name the child?" He asked.

"Honestly, I don't know yet," he said. "I've been given it a lot of thought. He'll probably just be a junior."

"Did you know Maggie and Alex broke it off?" He asked as he poured JJ some orange juice. He handed the young man the glass, and then said, "She's pretty broken up about it too."

"Yeah. I know all about it," he said. "Alex told me it wasn't my fault, so I feel good about that. Alex will just have to find somebody with similar desires."

"It didn't have anything to do with me either," James said. "Alex wants children and Maggie don't want children. It's that simple. So, you're right. She's going to have to find a lady with her desires."

JJ quickly left James' apartment, and the CEO of CATCO walked onto the balcony and sat in his peaceful hot tub. It became his place of solace, a place where he could be unwound from a hectic day of dealing with Lena Luthor. Some soft music played in the background, and he smoked on an old-fashioned cigar. It had a manly smell to it, the kind of smell grandfathers and men in power had. He thought back, way back to his father, and how he told him great men often relaxed with a cigar. He liked his cigars Cuban, sweet smelling, and with a hearty flavor because his lofty bank account allowed that. He sat back in his cozy hot tub, looked over the city, and enjoyed the ambiance of it all.

He already had the black suit ready for work in the morning because Lena wanted to show him some ancient artifacts, and according to her, she had a necklace older than two hundred thousand years that a great witch used to entice and seduce a god. Once the witch slept with the god, a darkness engulfed the world for nearly two thousand years until another god named Luciferous broke the enchantment. It sent the witch into a tailspin, and when the god awoke from his delusional state, he killed himself because everything he loved and his one true love was all gone. He had nothing left.

He didn't trust Lena Luthor, especially since her momma worked her subterfuge on Supergirl and the DEO. Often, he wondered if JJ knew anything about Lillian Luthor because he worked for Cadmus and she was a high-level official in the organization. Parts of Cadmus had gone rogue, but not the Gotham branch; they worked mutually with the DEO.

Alien Club:

When James walked quietly into the Alien Bar, he didn't realize a small concert was happening to the front of the club. The dank atmosphere brought chills to him, but after he drank a few Apple Martinis, he expected the smell to go away. There were nearly two hundred people in the place of all calibers and hues. Kara and Alex set off to the side, on the floor, and listened to the singer with long black hair, very Gothic, and singing a song called, "Creep." When Winn walked over to him, he said, "Your boy is tearing it up."

"My boy?" James asked. He was trying his best to figure out what he meant because he didn't have any close friends in National City except for Winn and Kara.

"Yeah," he said, "JJ and Peppermint are rocking it. He shook his head back and forth, and listened to the soft sounds, and said, They sound professional." He couldn't believe he didn't immediately think of JJ when Winn said, "Your boy." It made sense since JJ lived in Little Africa.

"If that's JJ, then it's professional. I know who trained him," he said with a smile. "Mark Hammond of the group, 'This Band Sucks' trained him."

"I've heard them play," Winn said. He shook his head in agreement and then smiled. "It makes sense."

Suddenly JJ spoke from the stage and said, "There's a lot of sadness tonight, a lot of broken hearts." He strummed the strings of his guitar one time. It was like he was trying to get everybody's attention for what he had to say. He then said, "It's not easy on Earth." He smiled and then placed his right hand on his chest. He then said, "I know. I have some of the best friends in the world, and it's not easy." He pointed directly to James and Kara. "I have the best fiancee on the planet, and it's not easy." Peppermint stood right by his side. "I love her so much." He kissed her on the cheek, and the crowd cheered. He then said, "But when you have so many good people in your life, it's not hard either. This song is to my friend Alex." He pointed to Alex, and she raised her drink in the air. "It's called 'Fix You' by Coldplay." James listened to JJ as he sang out his heart, and the way he threw his voice almost seemed impossible. He sounded just like the actual band, and Peppermint played the keyboard in the background. Alex began to sob, and so did Kara. They put their drinks in the air and gently swayed back and forth. When he started on his guitar solo, he said, "Peppermint and I love you, Alex."

When JJ finished with the Coldplay song, Peppermint set a stool in front of him. Another young girl walked up on the stage with an acoustic guitar, handed it to him, and then she hugged him. She had another acoustic guitar, and she sat behind him in the ready position. "This is the last song I'm going to play tonight," he said into the microphone. "I have my best friend Vera backing me up. She's awesome, guys." He paused for a moment and smiled. "I just want y'all to know it's been fantastic to have you here, on this planet, and hanging with me. I just want you to know that you're all highways, you're all the sky, and you can all accomplish anything if you put your mind to it." He had his guitar at the ready, and said, "This song is by Audioslave. It's called 'I Am The Highway.'"

The beautiful song started off with Peppermint on the keyboard. It flowed melodiously, and then she kicked in with the drums, and JJ and Vera started in with the acoustic guitars. As JJ sang the song, the entire crowd swayed back and forth, hands in the air, and seemed to be lost in his voice. Some of the people in the crowd cried, including James. He couldn't believe how well JJ and his fiancee played, and the way the room responded to them. The entire Alien Bar swayed with them. He played with so much passion that James could hardly believe the Gothic dressed kid on the stage was the same guy who constantly showed up at his house unexpected.

Next morning…

James drove his fancy, Acura NSX Base sports car to the opening of the new Luthor Depository; it was a nice sized building with ancient artifacts that went back over one million years. The building looked like it belonged in Gotham instead of National City with its triangled windows and steeples. It was so Gothic looking that Kara asked James as soon as she saw him, "Was JJ the designer?"

"Honestly, I'm thinking the same thing," he said softly. "It looks like something he'd design."

When he walked into the building, the room's size overwhelmed him for a moment. They looked at some of the artifacts, but Lena appeared to focus on one particular piece more than anything else: the necklace.

"Look, James," she said with a smile on her face. "This necklace was made in the region of Africa where Cameroon lies," she said, "It dates back to two hundred thousand years ago when the region worshiped the god, Ptah." It was a beautiful necklace of pure crystals and gold, and from what James could tell, it enamored Lena. "Ptah married Sekhmet in the ancient tale, but the witch who made the necklace was jealous of the union and used it to destroy him. Her name was Apate."

"It sounds like a beautiful story," James said.

"It's one of tragedy," she said softly. She looked like she had gazed into space for a moment. "It's all myth."

"But beautiful nonetheless," James said. "You tell it so eloquently that if I didn't know any better, I would say you're pining for the curator's job."

She smiled. "That's too much work," she said as they walked side by side. "Keeping up with all this would be a nightmare."

When James looked over his left shoulder, he saw Kara bending down, and she had a slight nosebleed. Quickly, he ran over to her, and looked directly into the case at the green rock, and knew it was kryptonite.

"What's that doing here?"

When Lena realized James wasn't with her, she looked over at the case of kryptonite, and said, "Come to find out that kryptonite was on Earth over four hundred thousand years ago." She paused. "The scientist are baffled by this."

James and Kara played off her allergic reactions to the radioactive rock, and he placed his left arm around her to help keep her upright until she recouped from the effects of the radioactive material. He looked back at the rock, and the fact that it was dated from four hundred thousand years ago, baffled him. It was possible that a time traveler took it back in time, but he had a feeling that wasn't the cause. During his testing and training with Cadmus, he overheard Rachel Ballard discussing a war between the gods, Kryptonians and other super beings. The war had taken place over a million years earlier, but the Kryptonians lost it. Since Clark never mentioned a great war nearly a million years earlier, he didn't know what he believed.

Lena estimated the Depository could bring in over twenty-two million dollars a year if done right, but James wasn't sure what that meant. There were tons of ancient artifacts, but the age of most of them didn't seem realistic to the average person. All the items she had on display were much older than recorded history, and that in itself was controversial.

Ms. Luthor walked around the auditorium and discussed every item, and then she rolled back a large painting from the twelfth century BCE, and it made both Kara and him nervous. He walked up to the masterpiece, looked back at Kara, and both of them looked like they saw a ghost. The picture looked like JJ and Peppermint, but they were of a darker complexion, a deep blackness like he had never seen in his life.

"These two were great gods," she said with a smile. "Lovers throughout time. It's said that Ptah took the mind of his wife, put it into another being, and turned her into his wife Sektmah. This was the first painting of them that's in existence." She paused for a moment. "It was rumored that alien races of great powers tried to destroy mankind, and they fought them off effortlessly." She laughed. "It's rumored they loved each other for thousands of years until the witch with her magical charm stole him away from her. She committed suicide about a year after he left her, and then when the spell broke, he killed himself." She laughed. "Due to the fact they consummated their relationship while she wore the charm, she went mad when he died, and killed herself. It's a tragic story."

"Are you seeing this?" James said to Kara.

"Just a coincident," she said with a dithering smile. "I'm freaked out, James. This explains a lot."

"You're right. It's just a coincidence," he said with a scowl. "Look at the look in his eyes?"

"It's uncanny," she whispered. "I'm just going to back away from it, and pretend like I didn't see it."

"What's going on back there?" Lena asked.

"This picture is so lifelike," James said. "I mean this isn't what the real gods looked like."

"The artist, according to the notes my scientists deciphered, drew the picture from messages from the god himself."

"Which god?" Kara asked.

"Ptah," she said, "In Egypt, he had the face of an animal, but in Central Africa, he had the face of a man. They said in some regions of the universe he was called Vulcan."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

JJ and Peppermint sat at the dinner table quietly eating ramen, kimchi, and drinking soda. The television played in the background; it was Friday, and that was horror movie night, a tradition the couple shared since primary school. A picture set on the far wall of Peppermint when she was only ten-years-old. On the nightstand next to the television stood a picture of JJ, Peppermint, and Vera. The two girls were squatting and JJ stood between them. They all posed with the boxy symbol. It was where the two hands came together to form a box. Most of the time it looked more like a circle, but it depended on the kid's form when displaying the symbol.

A mystifier blew a peachy aroma across the room, a scent that JJ enjoyed immensely. He sat in his socks and kept putting his right foot between his girlfriend's legs, and then she'd say, "Don't start nothing and it won't be nothing."

"You can't threaten me with what I want," he quipped, "It's not like I can re-impregnate you."

"Yeah. The last thing we need is two babies," she said, "We'll barely be able to take care of this one."

Peppermint wore white, peppermint pajamas with pictures of the round candy all over it. JJ reached into his black, gadget-filled backpack that set next to his right leg, handed Peppermint a healthy stack of money, and it angered her. "We'll have plenty of money," JJ said, "We'll have no problems caring for our child. I know your parents think we're going to suffer, but we're not."

Peppermint looked down at the stack of money with a snarl on her face. It baffled JJ, but he sat quiet and enjoyed his ramen. "JJ, why did you give me all this money you made at the Alien Bar?" Peppermint asked. She held onto a tall stack of money and tapped it on the table. It was almost as if she wasn't happy with the cash, and the way she acted prior, he didn't understand what she wanted from him. "I've never held on to this much money in my life, but we'll go through it like water." She set the stack of money on the table for a moment while JJ walked behind her, tapped the back of her chair, and wondered why she had a problem with the cash.

"It's to buy the baby things," he said with a calm visage. He knew she doubted his ability to provide for her and the baby because of the nasty things her parents said about young, black men through the years, and when she first told him that, it upset him. Even though Mister Lee and his father were best friends and served in the Gulf War together, he didn't trust that JJ could provide a life for his daughter. But when it came to JJ, he was innovative and resilient. He had always made money with his mobile apps, but for some reason, that wasn't enough for Peppermint. They both had great powers that put them in the same league as some of the strongest people on the planet, but she doubted him nonetheless. Her distrust of his abilities cut him deeply. "Just put it in your bank account and be done with it," he said with a grimace. He hated the way she acted when he brought home money. "I will always do my part when it comes to housing, feeding, and clothing our child. People come from all over National City, Little Africa, Metropolis, and Suicide Slums to listen to me play. They're still purchasing my app and I have a steady flow of money coming in every month. Don't let your parent's uneasiness infect our relationship!"

Later in the evening...

Orion flew into the living room while JJ and Peppermint sat on the couch watching television. She washed all the dishes from their small, nightly snack and now they sat peacefully on the couch. She lay on the sofa with her legs on top of his legs, and from what he could tell, she was already asleep and the movie wasn't even halfway through yet. Gently, he slid his right hand up and down her smooth legs in the hopes that he'd entice her into coitus, but it didn't work. She began to snore loudly. Her stomach stuck out slightly, and she was showing more and more signs of being pregnant every day.

Orion's silver alloy flickered for a moment when he looked over at her. It was full dark outside, on a Friday, and the young couple watched a horror movie like they did almost every Friday. "What?" JJ asked as he looked at the flying disc hovering in the middle of the living room. For some reason, he felt like he could almost read the alien robot's mind. It was like she was talking to him without saying anything. "I had a dream about you last night, Orion. It was crazy. You were an albino chick." He laughed for a moment, and then said, "We lived in a mansion, on a hill, and thousands of creatures attended to our every need. It seemed so real. Crazy, huh?"

"Dreams sometimes seem real," she said, "Wait a minute? I'm sensing a problem."

"What?" He asked.

The sophisticated robotic disc said, "I'm detecting distress with Vera. Her heart rate is elevated. She's scared." She floated over to the young man, and then he held her in the palm of his right hand. "I placed a sensor on the girl just in case of an emergency."

"What kind of stress is the sensor picking up?" He asked with a grimace. "Where is she? I have to go to her immediately." JJ began to panic at the mere thought of something happening to his best friend.

"Close your eyes, JJ, for a moment and concentrate on her?" Orion asked. "You have the power to detect her mind or the mind of any person you choose. You have great powers that you haven't begun to explore."

He relaxed for a moment, and a serenity came over his face. Deeply, he thought about Vera, and in a few seconds into his meditative session, he felt her fear resonate in his head. It was like her consternation flowed through his blood and he could sense her every ache and pain. Suddenly, he crept into her mind and was able to see what she saw. It was Nate! He stood in front of her with a gun and he held it to her head, threatening to pull the trigger. "She's afraid. Very afraid, Orion. I see Nate. He's holding a gun to her head. She's begging him to stop."

JJ got dressed at the speed of light and took flight with the palm computer on his back. He wore his black uniform with the "V" on the front. When he flew down in front of Nate, Johnny stood by his side while he pointed a handgun at his best friend, Vera. She was crying as she stood in front of Nate. She shook uncontrollably as her boyfriend held the gun to her face. It was a sad situation that had developed and JJ didn't understand why his old friend wanted to hurt Vera.

"What are you doing, Nate?" The Vulcan asked in a calm voice. Nate looked deranged and agitated. Normally, he was the one friend who didn't talk too much. His mother was from Indian and his father was a black police officer killed in the line of duty. He was non-talkative while he sat in the back during most school functions. He was the quiet, best friend, the friend who loved to listen to others, but not now. For some reason, he looked like a madman hellbent on killing his girlfriend. He held the weapon to Vera's face, and it made JJ nervous. He didn't want to kill his old friend, but if his finger went for the trigger, he'd have to use lethal force to stop him.

"She's playing me, man," Nate said as his hands shook wildly and with tears racing down his face. Sweat dribbled off his dark brown forehead, and he noticed Johnny smirking at Nate's outrage. The young Vulcan concentrated for a moment, sensed the nexus between Johnny and Nate, and he immediately severed it with the power of his mind. He knew when he severed the connection between his two friends that Johnny was an imposter. When JJ broke the link, Nate stumbled backward, and then All of a sudden, a lightning bolt hit Nate's gun, and it melted into a pile of black, metal goo. He then waved his right hand, and his friend flew into the air under the power of his mind. JJ hurled him about three miles up into the sky, and then let him free fall before he caught him again with his telekinesis. Somewhere in the free-fall, his old friend lost conscious, and then JJ laid him on the ground to recover.

The Vulcan looked directly at Johnny for a moment, and with the power of his mind, he could see Perilous Pearl inside of his old friend. With his telekinesis, he ripped off the alien's clothes, and even though she was a powerful telepath, she didn't have the ability to enter into his mind. Even though she looked like his friend Johnny, he knew it was Perilous. She tried her best to break down the walls around his mind, but he hit her with a powerful burst of wind. It knocked her on the ground and a pile of dust flew into the air. She then charged the Vulcan and kicked him in the groin. It caused him to fall to one knee. "Bitch!"

"Yeah," she said, "You don't have your god powers yet." She began to beat him in the face, and then when she stumbled, he blew her backward with another burst of wind.

"I bet a bolt of lightning will fry your ass," he said, "How would you like that?"

She stood to her feet, took a deep breath, and then JJ could clearly see her image superimposed on his, and then after a few seconds, he could see her clearly. "You might as well come out of that meat skin," he said. "Where's my friend, Johnny?"

She began to laugh, and then his manly voice turned feminine. Her hue darkened until her skin looked like midnight and her hair grew long and turned pure white. He hadn't ever seen a being with so much beauty and grace in his entire life. She was like a tenebrous angel. Vera gasped.

"Oh, my gawd!" Vera exclaimed, "What's going on?" She asked.

"It's amazing that this girl raises the Destroyer," Perilous said, "She's so frail. Innocent."

"Where's Johnny, Perilous?" JJ asked.

"In Gotham," she said as she pulled off her white gloves. "He's in an abandoned warehouse. He's safe. I only want to hurt her."

Nate slowly stood up, and asked, "What's going on?"

"This alien took on the likeness of Johnny, and manipulated you into believing Vera was cheating on you," he said. He turned to Vera, and she had tears rolling down her soft face. "Tell him what you were doing, Vera? Tell Nate so he'll know you never cheated on him?"

"You mean with Mark?" She asked with a calm visage.

"Yeah," he said, "Tell him what you were planning?"

Vera placed her hands in her pockets, and then went on with her story. Perilous stood about fifteen feet away with a smirk on her face because she knew what she had done. "Oh! JJ and I purchased you the ukulele from Mark," she said as she looked directly at Nate. "I got a good price on the high dollar one. After we made the exchange, he kissed me, and then I knocked him into the wall. I don't know why he kissed me, but when I saw you run out the door, I knew it was a setup."

Perilous raised her right hand and then said, "That was me. I had Mark under my control."

"Perilous, you put him up to it? Why?" JJ asked with a serious visage. It was obvious that he had his guard up because he felt bitterness toward Perilous Pearl because she interfered with his life and friends. She stood in front of him beautifully black and flawless-and full of hubris.

"You know why," she said with a grimace. "If she dies, the future changes to something manageable. Maybe just maybe we can keep the General from destroying the universe. Maybe just maybe we can keep you from turning back into Ptah the Great, Murderer of Worlds and the Destroyer of Chthonica. The universe fears your return."

"But I've never done any of those things," he said calmly. "This is just more of your trickery."

Perilous scoffed, and then said, "This isn't the first time you've put a spell on yourself that stripped you of all your powers and knowledge. You do this so you can live as a mortal being and then place judgment once you transition back into a god. On my world, we study the Great Ptah and all he did throughout the universe."

"I'm not familiar with any of this," he said, "What do you remember from the future?" JJ asked. "According to my sources, it has already changed for the better."

"I remember you, and I mean you," she said as she pointed at him. "Destroying four hundred billion people was you, Vulcan. They were your children. Moxia was the love child between you and the planet Dora, but because you're under a spell, you don't know of these things. You had a choice to reject the order against your children, but you didn't. You followed it without any knowledge of who you are."

"I'm the Vulcan, Perilous Pearl. I have no memory of these past atrocities. Why would I kill so many worlds? I heard the voice recordings of what happened with Moxia, and I protested the order," he said with a grimace. He didn't have a clue of what past atrocities she mentioned, and it disturbed him. From what Rachel Ballard told him, he carried the godspark of Ptah, and when he turned the age of twenty-one, his full, godlike powers would come online.

"But you carried it out nonetheless," she said in a strong tone. "You killed billions of good people, innocent people. You killed children, Vulcan. Children! Your progeny."

JJ folded his arms because he felt uncomfortable with what the Sapphire told him, and he just stared at her for a moment. He thought back to what Niona told him and then said in a calm voice, "Niona told me that we're now on a different timeline. The General rewound time, and restored all the life we destroyed."

"He didn't rewind your atrocities against the verse," she said, "The General's Golden Knights can't undo what you've done over five million years ago."

"I'm only sixteen, Perilous Pearl," he said, "I don't have any memory of five million years ago. I don't want to see four hundred billion people die tomorrow, and I will do everything in my power to ensure nothing like that happens. I don't want to see one person die." He paused for a moment. "Ganthet already tried to kill Peppermint and me because of this very issue, and Niona stopped him, and told him about the new future."

Orion flew out of JJ's backpack, and then Perilous Pear immediately fell to one knee. "I didn't know you were with us, oh Great Orion."

"Stand up, child," Orion said, "The Vulcan's memory hasn't returned to him yet. You're only upsetting him by accusing him of things he can't fathom. The Great Ptah culled worlds that threatened the greater good of the verse."

"So, humanity is being judged?" Perilous said calmly.

"I'm humanity's judged?" JJ asked.

"Yes," Orion said, "Once your memory is restored, you'll understand the mission. Perilous, your mere presence in this time is a problematic one."

"I have orders to take you to the Time Counsel," JJ said. "You're in violation of…" He paused for a moment and then turned to Orion who floated near his head. "Dammit, Orion. You know I don't know all the codes."

"She's in violation of Code Seven Twenty-Two. Unlawful time travel to an alternate time. Punishable by death."

"Death?" JJ asked.

"Yes, JJ," she said.

JJ looked at Perilous Pearl and decided he'd try to use his telepathy. He said aloud, "That's the price you pay for being a dirtbag, Perilous Pearl."

"You're going to let them kill her?" Vera asked. "That's not right."

"What can I do?" He said. "It's the law."

"Just another vassal," Pearl said laughingly. "Just a dog who follows orders. How did a god fall so far as to let mere mortals dictate his actions?"

Suddenly, Pearl fell to her knees, and JJ whispered into her mind, "I don't have all my powers, but I can still incapacitate you with a mere thought. I'm trying to understand who I am and no matter what you say, I'm not a killer of worlds."

"You don't get it,' she whispered back to him. "You're the judge, jury, and executioner."

Later in the evening...

JJ flew to Gotham City, over to the Wayne Manor, and Bruce sat in his dining room by himself. His black hair has layers of gray mixed into it. He wore an old, black business suit. On the left side of the table set a key, but JJ didn't know what it was too.

Wayne Manor was an old mansion, the kind of mansion portrayed in horror movies. He no longer had a trusted, family butler who met all his needs; he was a man destined to remain alone. Alfred died nearly seventeen years earlier when the Joker raided Batman's lair. He executed Alfred on the spot. JJ raked his left index finger across an old, Victorian style banister, and couldn't believe the amount of dirt on his finger. Mister Wayne sat at his dining room table with a bowl of the reddest cherries he had ever seen in his life.

When the young, tenebrous kid walked into his dining room, Mister Wayne looked up at him with a rigid look, and said, "You don't even believe in knocking, do you?" He spat a cherry pit into a cup and then grunted.

"You said to drop by anytime," JJ said with a smirk on his face. He looked around the dining room for a moment, and then said, "I didn't take Perilous into custody."

"Why not?" He asked with a grimace. "That evil bitch hates you to your core." He stuck another cherry into his mouth and then spit the seed into his white, styrofoam cup. "Isn't that what your comrades wanted? Didn't they want you to take her into custody?"

"She promised me she'd return to her time," he said, "But if I turned her over to the TC, I feared they'd put her to death. I couldn't let them do that."

"Why are you here?" He asked with a stern look.

"I can't just drop by?" JJ asked. "I mean damn, Bruce."

"You never just drop by," he said. "I know your type."

"What type is that?" He asked.

"You've received damn near one hundred thousand dollars from Cadmus and the DEO, but you live in the slums like a peasant," he said, "You're staying in your comfort zone. Spending money on what you need and not drawing attention to yourself."

"It's not that I fear leaving the slums," he said. "But if I want to make a change, then I have to be in the community to do it. It's just the way it is. Mister Wayne, I need a car, a smart conveyance that can interface with Orion."

"A car?" He said.

"Yeah," he said, "J'onn is acting a little crazy over this secret identity stuff, so I thought I better start hiding my identity better."

"That's sound advice," he said, "You're putting your family and friends in danger if they know your alter ego."

JJ walked over to an old, antiquated statue of Superman; it was nearly twenty years old when he wore a black uniform and had a beard. "Johnny's tied up in an old abandoned warehouse on Fifth Street. Orion is with him and I'll be meeting up with them in a little bit."

Mister Wayne began coughing, and then he clenched his chest. JJ grabbed his nitro from the end of the table and handed him a pill. He swallowed it quickly, and then he seemed okay. "You have a license, right?"

"Of course," he said, "I got one as soon as I turned sixteen."

"The black Camaro has your name on it," he said. "It's a starter car, and it's fitted to communicate with laptops and mobile devices. It should interface with Orion with no problem at all. It has internet access, and you have the ability to search critical data on the bad computer."

"You're giving me all this?" He asked.

"Yeah," he said, "But you better take care of it. You have a two million dollar crime-fighting tool at your disposal. That means keep it clean, full of gas, and only you and Peppermint drive it."

"I could hug you right now," he said, "But I won't because you don't like to be touched."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

(Gods Can Fall)

Prologue

Congo (The Valley of the Blessed): 200,000 Thousand Years Ago…

The land flowed with milk and honey-and beautiful women made from the richness of the Earth. Freedom spread throughout The Valley of The Blessed, and Princess Tila Apate Api, the daughter of King K'La Api looked over her beautiful kingdom, and condemned the god Ptah, and stated loudly, "Ptah never imbued the Dawdians with his gifts to forge metals and build machines." They laughed at the god Ptah, spit on his effigies, and burned his altars. They had magnificent weapons that had the ability to devastate any approaching army toward their kingdom. She stood erect, svelte, and her skin was blackened by the kindness of the sun. Gold encrusted her hair, and the braids fell below her shoulders. She walked with her women servants, Umbra La and Kova La, through the hallways of the spacious kingdom, and asked some of the following questions.

"Are the Dawdians not better than Ptah?" She asked. "For thousands of years, he's tried to keep us beneath the heel of his shoes."

"Princess, it's not wise to throw our achievements in the face of the god who imbued us with his abilities to build this society," Umbra La said. "We have so much wealth and beauty in this world that we should give thanks to the god who paved the way for us."

"I know this myth of Ptah being this passionate deity, but he raped our world like all the gods he killed did. He went to his enemies, killed them, and took their wives and female children as concubines. He castrated the boys and made them watch over the well-being of his wives, and when one of them stood up to him, he struck them down with a bolt of lightning."

"That's legend, Princess," Kova La said. "Isn't he an ancestor to our kingdom? Do we have too much hubris to give thanks to our progenitor?"

"We built all this," the Princess said. "If Ptah returns, I can only hope our machines and powerful guns can stop him in his tracks."

King K'La Api's kingdom was called the Dawdians, an ancient kingdom in the Congo that stretched north into modern day Bambari and south into Katanga. It was an advanced city with the ability to forge metals, powerful weapons, and motorized vehicles. Approximately ten thousand years prior, Ptah had impregnated hundreds of fertile women, and they started the Dawdian's dynasty, and once the kingdom had grown tired of their god, a group of young witches cast a spell that eradicated him from the kingdom for ten thousand years.

"We know the myths, Princess Api," Kova La said as she walked with her hands behind her back. "Ten thousand years are up. Ptah will return to us. He'll want to take his throne back, and have all the women he finds fair pleasure him."

"Can you make another banishing spell?" The Princess asked.

"Yes, but it won't do any good," she said. "Myth has it he left after the witches cast the spell, but it also said that he countered the spell, but because the women pleaded with him to let them grow apart from his rule, he let them do so."

"I will not plead with this demon," the Princess said. "We will fight him with our powerful weapons if he ever decides to return."

A month later…

Kingdom of Light: Two Miles Above Western Africa

Kova La flew in a small craft up to the Kingdom of Light where Ptah La lived with his queen, Sekhmet La. The craft moved tardigrade across the sky and landed on a platform with other powerful flying crafts. When she exited the machine, all the guards lined up, and said, "Princess Kova La has arrived."

"Stand at ease," she said as she walked into her palace. "Where's my father located?"

"He's in the royal bath with your mother," the guard said.

Immediately, she stormed into the royal bathroom where her parents drank some of the finest wine in existence.

"Father," she said as she removed all her clothes, and stepped into the world pool. "The Dawdians disrespects you every time one of them opens their ungrateful mouth."

"What do you mean, dear?" King Ptah asked with a look of concern.

"They burn your altars, piss on your effigies, and curse your very name, father," she said with a grimace. "The disrespect was so bad that I left sister on the surface. I told her to signal me when she was done hanging with those ingrates."

Sekhmet looked worried for a moment. "We knew the humans would grow emboldened over time," she said, "We're not gods, and shouldn't act as such. Their ridicule of us is part of their growth spurt."

"Your mother's right," King Ptah said. "We have advanced technology and our species live millions of years, but we aren't gods." He smiled for a moment as he reminisced about his crazy years. "I frittered one hundred thousand years of my life with the humans in the hopes I would find something meaningful. And when I did find a woman I could love, she only lasted for ten to fifteen years before some disease wiped her out of existence. I've had over ten thousand heartbreaks."

She sighed. "Now they live eighty years," she said with a grimace. "They don't understand that you imbued the world with your seed so mankind could live longer."

"The Great Mother wouldn't help me extend the lives of the humans," he said with a grimace. "She grew to hate them over time, and absconded from this world." He stood up out of the water, and his manhood dangled all the way down to his knees. "The humans saw my women farms as pleasure-seeking plantations, but that wasn't the case. All I wanted to do was put enough of my genetic code into the human race, so they could be better."

"Your children are running amok, father," she said, "At some point, you'll have to deal with them."

He laughed for a moment. Grabbing a box off a shelf in the bathroom, he asked, "Do you know what this is?"

"Of course," she said, "When you're done with this existence, your spark will go into that box, and wait for some future being to carry it."

"That's right," he said. "When humankind needs me, a special person will carry on my spark, and continue to help out the human race."

Two days passed, but Princess Kova La hadn't heard anything from her sister, Princess Umbra La. She waited by her message box for word from her sister, but nothing. She told Umbra to call her within two days, and now she planned on going to the surface on her whereabouts. Most of the time her kid sister shadowed her everywhere she went, and now Umbra was on the surface of the planet, not communicating, and could be in trouble.

Overall, the Dawdians were an advanced people who had reasonable laws on the books for every crime. The nation took pride in their judicial system, and over the last two hundred years, hadn't put another soul to death for a crime. She took her vessel, and flew down to the Dawdian Kingdom, and looked around for her young sister. It was Saturday morning, and large parties took place in the town's square. When she walked on the scene, naked bodies of men and women were fast asleep, and some of them were still engaged in coitus. She walked up to her sister forming fellatio on Prince A'da Api, and immediately grabbed her by the back of the head.

"What are you doing?" She asked as her sister pulled her away from the Prince's penis.

"Why did you do that?" The Prince screeched.

"Father wants you home," Kova La said with a grimace. She turned to the Prince, and said, "She's coming with me."

"Do you know who I am, peasant?" He asked with a scowl on his face. She looked at him for a moment, and then he said, "I'll have you beheaded."

"You humans have grown too big for your own good," she said. "Don't mess with what you don't understand."

He smirked. The Prince balled up his tenebrous hand into a fist and tried to hit Kova La, but when he missed, he flew head first into a concrete bench and died on impact. Blood poured out of his head, and Princess Kova La knew immediately such an action could result in a war. She grabbed her sister, but when they tried to leave the square, a horde of guards descended on them. Immediately, the guards arrested Kova La for the accidental killing of a member of the royal family.

"You must tell father I am being jailed," Kova La said. "He'll know what to do."

The subterranean jail, dark and dank, was a den of horrors for the young Princess, and she saw the depravity of the Dawdians' justice system firsthand. The old woman with matted hair rotted in her chains in the middle of the floor, and she smelled like urine, feces, and decay. The Princess glared into her gray eyes, and it caused her heart to skip a beat at the horror of her face. Diseases ate at the flesh of an older man as he lay chained to the far wall of the dungeon of horrors. His tattered clothes were barely enough to keep him warm, and at night, the temperature plummeted to about forty degrees Fahrenheit. She remembered she hadn't eaten anything before she left her Kingdom in the sky, and now she didn't know when she'd receive her next meal.

She sat away from the other prisoners and tried to meditate on memories of relaxing in the hot tub, but the cool air crept into the dungeon around six o'clock in the evening. She grabbed a brick off the ground, placed it in her right hand, and allowed her energy to flow into it. It turned the brick bright red, and then she sat it on the ground. For nearly two hours, it generated a plethora of heat, and all the residents gathered around its glowing warmth.

About ten o'clock at night, she dozed off for about two hours, and when she looked over at the woman chained to the floor, she didn't move at all because she had died. The horrible way the woman died saddened her, and there wasn't anything she could do about it. She waited until morning for her father to arrive.

Royal Court…

Men in long, majestic robes stood in the middle of the courtroom, and a jury of twelve people was on the far side of the room. An entire audience was seated, and she knew it was because she accidentally caused the death of Prince A'da Api. When the prosecutor talked about her crime, he spoke nothing but lies.

"The slave girl came up behind the Prince, and beat his head in with a brick," he said with a scowl on his face. "She was jealous because he didn't show her any attention."

Suddenly, the courtroom doors flung open, and a tall man in a dark robe, crown, and with several guards on either side of him entered. It was King Ptah, and he said, "Release Princess Kova La immediately."

"Princess?" The Judge asked. "She's clearly a peasant girl."

"She's my daughter," he said.

"And who are you?" The Judge asked.

"I am King Ptah," he said boldly. The entire room gasped and then broke out in laughter.

"Then if you are Ptah, you should know we no longer adhere to your rule," he said. "Dawdians have moved past gods."

"I think you're having a hard time believing me," the King said as a battalion of men entered into the courtroom. He smirked for a moment, and said, "Do you need an example of my powers?"

The Judge laughed and then the crowd laughed, and then the King laughed. Everybody laughed except for Kova La. She feared for the safety of all the guards because she knew the look in her father's eyes. "Judge, this is my father, King Ptah, and I beg you not to laugh at him because his powers can decimate all the Dawdian Dynasty."

"Okay, guards. Get this idiot out of my courtroom," the Judge ordered.

"Don't do it, father," she said loudly.

"But they test me, child," he said with a grimace. When the guards grabbed him, they all fell to the ground dead. It was one large thump of bodies hitting the floor, and as the King approached the bench, another guard pulled out a gun and fired at the King. The bullet fell to the ground, and then a bolt of lightning sliced the soldier in half.

"Father! Enough!" Kova La exclaimed.

He grabbed his daughter's right hand and escorted her out the courtroom. The entire building of people wailed over the dead soldiers, and for the first time in hundreds of years, the Dawdian Dynasty felt unsure about their existence. They thought Ptah was merely mythical, and due to the fact they laughed at him, he punished them by taking their grapes for making wine. Every day he sent fleets of ships to the surface of the planet, and he commandeered their grape harvest and then sold the finished product back to them. The Dawdian people fell into despair, and crime rose in the kingdom. The laws turned Draconian, and for the littlest of crimes, people were killed immediately.

Four years later…

The dilapidated infrastructure of the Dawdian Kingdom brought tears to Princess Tila Apate Api's eyes. She traveled down the dilapidated roads in her conveyance and observed her land. The farmers worked directly for Ptah, and all he gave them in return was misery. She carried the heartache of what she said about the god Ptah, and she kept asking herself if she caused the demise of her father's kingdom. But after four years of him stealing their crops, she decided to turn to a covenant of witches for help. She first took an envoy to the Kingdom of Light in hopes to sway Queen Sekhmet La to encourage her husband to stop stealing their crops.

Two large guards escorted her into the Royal Court, and the Queen sat on a gold bench. The flowers were more beautiful than anything she had ever seen in her life. They were of all hues, and several gardeners worked on the beautification of the place.

"Ma'am, I've come here to implore you to stop your husband from stealing my crops," she said with a grimace. "We're experiencing serious hardships because of it."

She stood to her feet, walked over to one of her plants, and pulled off a leaf. She then said, "Your people laughed at my husband, wanted to kill one of my daughters, and had another daughter performing sex acts in the middle of the town square. There's a price to be paid for that disrespect."

"We've given you all our grape crops for four years," she snapped back. "Isn't that payment enough?"

"It's up to my Lord on when you've met your obligation to us," she said with a smile.

"We're ready to bring war over this issue, Queen Sekhmet La," she said.

The Queen laughed, and then laughed louder. "You don't have the muscle to go to war with a god, girl," she said, "Your kingdom wouldn't reach the level of being a thorn in my Lord's side."

"We have heart," she snapped.

"Your body is filled with Ptah's blood. You exist because he impregnated hundreds of women ten thousand years ago, and started the Dawdian Dynasty. You should give him a little praise for that."

"I will never bow before him," she said, "He's not my Lord, and I'll make all of you pay for what you've done to my kingdom."

Later in the day…

Princess Tila Apate Api traveled to an area of Africa called Voxima, and the witches who resided in the community were descendants who made the original spell against Ptah. At one point, the entire country flowed with milk and honey, but after the witches cast a spell on him, he used his powers to destroy all their crops as long as they resided on the land. The people walked along the old road with their one-horse wagons, and poverty had stricken the place. When she entered the city with her fancy conveyance, the children flocked to her, demanded money, and wasted her time. By the time she found the covenant of witches, it was dark outside.

The witches lived in underground caverns and occupied the place for nearly ten thousand years. An underground stream flowed through the area, and edible mushrooms grew all over the place. When she walked down to the subterranean city, the witches quickly circled her. "I need your help," she said with a grimace. "Ptah has destroyed my kingdom."

"We don't have anything that can hurt him," the woman said calmly.

"Are you telling me he can't be stopped?" Princess Tila Apate Api asked. "Both him and his wife must pay."

"You're looking for revenge?" The witch asked with an evil grin on her narrow face.

"Whatever it takes to stop him," she said. "He killed my brother, my army, and stole my crops."

The witch walked up to her, and said, "There isn't anything more powerful than love. It's deadly."

"What are you saying?" The Princess asked.

"We made a special necklace out of crystal that will force Ptah to fall in love with you," she said. "You just have to wear it. "

"But what will that do?" She asked.

"He'll fall in love with you, neglect his wife, and she'll commit suicide," she said with a smirk. "Her suicide will drive him mad."

"All I have to do is wear it?" She asked.

"Yes! Unfortunately, you will fall in love with him immediately," she said with a grimace. "Once you put the necklace around your neck, you will lust after him in ways you can't imagine. The want for him will be insatiable. When he looks into your eyes while you wear the necklace, he will thirst for you, and beg to consummate with you at all cost. If his wife removes the necklace or somebody who cares about him removes it within a week, she won't be affected by it. Unfortunately, you will. Once the necklace is removed from you, you'll beg for death because the loss will be too great. If Ptah's wife commits suicide, then he'll go insane once the necklace is removed, and kill himself."

Dawdian Kingdom…

Princess Tila Apate Api drank a glass of wine, sat on the balcony outside her chambers, and thought about her life. She hadn't ever experienced true love in all her life, but she knew about hate. No matter how hard she tried not to hate Ptah, she had nothing but animus for him. The necklace lay on the wooden table in front of her, and she contemplated not wearing it at all because the collateral damage of it all was too great. But at the same time, she knew Ptah wouldn't stop with the rapine of her kingdom. It was what he did and she had to sacrifice herself to stop him. She placed the stone necklace in her right hand, and it was a clear crystal. There was a groove around the top of the ornament, and it was made in such a way the artifact wouldn't fall off the necklace.

A sudden knock—the King—startled her as she attempted to clasp the necklace around her neck. She placed it back on the table, and he walked out to the balcony. He didn't look well.

"Since the death of your brother, I've quickly gone downhill," the King said as he held his stomach.

"What are you saying, father?" She asked with a concerned look.

He stood up for a moment, and said, "King Ptah plans on removing me from the throne."

"Father, we can't let him do that," she said.

"We don't have the strength to go up against a being with his immense powers," he said. "He wiped out one-quarter of our fighting men with a bolt of lightning. We can't stop him."

She picked up the stone, and then said, "I will sacrifice myself for the kingdom."

"What do you mean, child?" He asked.

"You don't want to know the details," she said with a grimace. "Once I put on this necklace I will fall in love with Ptah and he'll fall in love with me. He will be enamored with me and malleable. I will twist him to my will for as long as I can." She hugged her father.

He whispered in her ear, and said, "Witchcraft comes with dire consequences."

"I've been warned, and accepted my fate," she said. "For the kingdom." She placed the necklace around her neck, and immediately felt an insatiable lust for King Ptah. Her father left out of her room, and she sat back down at the table on the balcony. She tried to focus her thoughts, but couldn't escape her feelings for him. They overwhelmed her, and she scuttled over to her chamber bed and laid down for a few hours. Every time she closed her eyes, her dreams took her to a place of nirvana where she spent an eternity with Ptah.

When she awoke from her sweet dream, she walked into the throne room, looked over at her father's throne, and King Ptah sat on it. For some reason, she thought she had the ability to control her lust for him, but she didn't. She ran over to him, and when she came into the vicinity of King Ptah, the necklace glowed white, and the glow encompassed the both of them. He smelled her like she was a piece of food, and then he said, "What have you done to me?"

She walked around him, and the way he moved, the way he stared at her, and the way he smelled enticed her. He quickly hopped off the throne, grabbed her by the back of the head, and threw her over the arm of the royal seat. He lifted up her dress, tore off her undergarments, and had sex with her several, uncontrolled times.

"I don't know what's happening," he said with a grimace. "I want you more and more with each time we have sex." She tried to walk away from him, but she felt an awful soreness between her legs. No matter how hard they tried to resist each other, they continued to have sex. For the first night, they didn't sleep, and his respite in her chamber wasn't a break at all. They continued to have sex until the morning time, and it weighed heavy on Princess Tila Apate Api because she was only a human being.

The next morning he forced himself out of her chamber bed, and from all the rough sex, he caused her to bleed. He looked at it for a moment, and his logical brain knew something wasn't right, but his logical brain wasn't in control. He quickly absconded from Princess Tila Apate Api, and headed to his ship. When he climbed aboard, the Princess came up behind him, and they had coitus a few more times.

"What spell have you cast on me, Tila?" He asked with a grimace. "I've never been drawn like this to any woman."

"Maybe it's time for a change," she said with a smile. "I'm here whenever you need me."

The Kingdom of Light…

When Ptah walked into his palace, his wife and daughters sat at the royal table and ate a magnificent breakfast. He kissed his wife on the cheek, and then she smelled his face. "Who's the whore?" She asked as she spread some freshly churned butter on her bread. "You smell like a night full of sex." She frowned as she bit into her toast, but remained quiet as she waited for his reply.

He sat down at the head of the table, and his staff set down a plate of eggs, toast, and bacon in front of him. Queen Sekhmet La ate her food but watched the king closely. "Something is happening to me, Sekhmet." He bit into his toast, and then said, "I'm under some kind of spell."

"What can it be?" She asked with a grimace. "We've been side by side for thousands of years, but you've never loved these humans. I sense that has changed. If this is magic, then it must be the strongest."

"You love a human?" Princess Umbra La asked. "How is this even possible?"

"Its Tila," he said calmly. "It's like she's been imbued with a magical spell or something. I wanted her so badly that I couldn't think of anything else."

"But why do I feel jealousy?" She asked angrily. "You've been fond of imps in the past, and I've never batted an eye, but I sense something insidious."

"This is quite baffling because Tila hates you with a passion," Princess Kova La said calmly. "Could she be using witchcraft?"

"It's possible," he said grimacing. "Right now she's taking up my whole mind."

"Umbra, you've studied the craft. What spell could do this to me?" He asked. "All I can think about is the princess."

"Hold on," she said as she ran into the royal library, and returned with a scroll on witchcraft. "Look?" She pointed to a page with a love charm. "How do you feel, Momma?"

"Horrible," she said. "It's like everything's been stolen from me. My kingdom, my husband, and my very life has been stolen from me."

"The potion causes the wife to commit suicide," she said. "It causes dismay and depression on a grand scale."

"She wore a charm similar to this one," Ptah said as he pointed at the one in the book. "I want to go to her now."

"We only have a few days to remove it from her neck," she said, "Otherwise, Momma will be hurt by it."

Ptah traveled back to the Dawdian Kingdom with every intention of snatching the necklace from Princess Tila Apate Api's neck because he didn't care to love anybody except his wife and daughters. One part of his brain wanted to be with his wife while the other part wanted to be with the princess. The latter wasn't real, but it felt real, and he hated that. Once he arrived at the royal palace, her scent aroused him. He kept telling himself he needed to turn back, hop in his vessel, and fly back to his Kingdom in the heavens. When he walked into her chambers, the cool air brushed past his face. She stood across the floor from him in her black, lace gown, and it was as if she expected him. When she walked directly in front of her chamber bed, her gown dropped to the floor, and the only thing on her bare body was the necklace around her neck.

In his mind, it was only a moment that he tussled horizontally with the young woman, and it was blissful. As he was in mid-stride with her, he heard his daughter from the threshold of the chamber door.

"Father, Momma's gone," she said in a whisper. "She took her own life."

For some reason, he didn't look up from what he was doing, and he engaged the princess sexually for several weeks. When he finally finished with her, she was famished, and he flew from her bedroom, bare and sweaty, and slew a unicorn in the woods. He hung it from a willow tree, skinned it, and gutted it on the spot. He then put his amazing energy into it and cooked it from the inside out. Princess Tila Apate Api and Ptah devoured the magical creature in her chambers, and it quickly became a morning ritual.

When Ptah returned to the Kingdom of Light, he walked into the royal chamber, searched for his wife, but couldn't find her. He saw some servants walking through the palace, chatting, and going about their day, but he couldn't find his beloved.

"Sekhmet?!" He exclaimed. "Where are you dear?" He meandered through the empty hallways, and couldn't find or feel his beloved on any level. When he walked into his bedroom, he saw her box, the one that would hold her god-spark, and it glowed. He ran out of the bedroom and screamed for his daughters. When Kova La walked down the hallway, he raised his voice to her. "You heard me screaming for you!" He exclaimed. "Why didn't you come?"

"Father?" She said with a heavy heart. "You've been gone for two years. I thought I dreamed you screaming."

"What?" He asked. "It hasn't been more than a day or so."

"No, father," she said with a grimace. "Momma took her own life by drinking a flask of ambrosia, and then cutting her own throat." She began to sob. "Her spark went into the box, and it awaits another soul."

"Where's Umbra?" He asked as he looked around for a moment.

"Away, father," she said. "She's in Kermet working with Prince Ra." His daughter walked in front of him, and then asked, "Did you remove the necklace?"

"I'm incapable of doing so," he said with a stern look on his face. "I tried my best, but all I wanted to do was have sex." He shook his head in disbelief. "The entire world moved forward while I remained stagnant."

"You've been on this world for tens of thousands of years, father," she said in a calm voice. "Maybe we should leave this primitive world with all our technology, and start anew."

He sat down in the middle of the floor for a moment. He then said, "Daughter, I'm still drawn to the Princess. I can't break the spell. I'm consumed by her."

"We're gods," she said with a grimace. "I find it hard to believe the humans have created something so powerful we can't overcome."

"We're only gods to the ignorant, child. Obviously, the witches have us figured out to a certain degree," he said. "I will break their curse one day."

Six months later…

It was April, a calm April full of warmth and beauty, and Ptah watched his enslaver give birth to his twin sons: Nutah and Gebah. He held his beautiful boys in his strong arms and then kissed his enslaver on the mouth. The boys grew fast, and the father kept them in the Kingdom of Light most days, and Kova La raised them. In the next five years, the cursed couple would have a total of seven kids, and Kova La made it her mission to ensure they were educated like all the gods. But after the twelfth year of the curse, Ptah's godly son ascended down to earth in a massive craft. He was Luciferous, and the universe referred to him as the Destroyer.

He wore golden armor, and his tenebrous skin was unblemished. With him were his two wives, Sayd and Uiba, the Green Witch. Sayd stood approximately sixty-four inches with dark, blue skin, silver hair, and yellow eyes. She wore a yellow ring on her right hand with the Lantern symbol.

Uiba was a little taller with dark, sage skin, orange hair, and small facial features. She looked like the woman he called The Great Mother.

"Why are you here, Luciferous?" He asked.

"Where's Sekhmet?" He asked with a grimace.

"She's passed," he said.

"You didn't think the universe would notice if a goddess took her own life?" He asked. "What the hell, father?"

He looked at his son, and said, "You've only been back in the Universe for thirty years. A lot has changed since you've been gone. The humans made a charm that caused me to fall in love with a princess, and it actually caused my wife to kill herself."

"Are you still under the spell, father-n-law?" Sayd asked with a grimace.

"Yes," he said, "She's on my mind every minute of the day." He looked up at his brother, and said, "You have the power to remove the necklace from her neck."

"I will do this for you, father," he said, "But the loss you will feel for Sekhmet once the curse is gone will drive you mad."

"I'd rather be dead than enslaved to her," he said.

End of Prologue

The cold air rushed through National City on Monday, November the twentieth as JJ readied himself for school. Orion played some background music while he showered, and then when he walked back into his bedroom in the nude, Peppermint laid back on his bed. He looked at her for a moment as she wore her white corset with the black bottom skirt, and the black, steampunk jacket. Her stomach grew bigger by the day, and it was like it had its own voice. She wasn't shy about emphasizing it with the way she wore her clothes, and JJ didn't mind it either. For some reason, everybody else thought the couple should be ashamed of having a child at a young age, but he immediately shut down that kind of talk before it started. He didn't want his child growing up thinking he was a mistake.

He stood in front of his closet for a moment, thought about the future, and realized he didn't have a grasp on anything. He paused because he felt a time shift that caused him some slight vertigo. It was as if a ripple effect happened right in front of his face and he didn't understand why. When he opened the closet door, Veo flew out of it and stood by him for a moment.

"Did you feel the time shift?" He asked calmly.

"Yeah," JJ said softly, "Something has changed, but I don't know what."

"It's highly probable Perilous caused it," he said, "I'll keep an eye on this, but leaving a time bandit like her free wouldn't lead to an auspicious outcome."

"I did what I thought was right," JJ said, "We'll chase Perilous down if she's the cause."

Veo flew into the living room after their brief conversation, and to be honest, the possibility of Perilous hopping through time made him nervous. He didn't know what a being of her caliber might do to the time stream.

"Hurry up!" Peppermint exclaimed. "You're moving ridiculously slow." He looked over at her for a moment and thought he'd wear something that complimented her outfit. He had the exact, gothic suit that matched her threads so he pulled it out from the back of the closet. "Did you answer Kara's email about Thanksgiving?" She asked.

"I wanted to ask you about that," he said calmly. He quickly placed some black pants onto his bed, and then Peppermint looked them over for a moment. He then said, "I told them you, me, and Vera will show up for the dinner."

"Okay," She said as she wiped the lint off his black pants. "I think that'll work." She paused for a moment, and then asked, "Where's all this lint coming from?"

"I don't know," he said calmly, "But they'll start eating at four. Nate and his Momma will eat around lunchtime," he said. "We'll make Momma a plate, and make sure she has something to eat before church. Nate is heading over to Johnny's house as soon as we finish eating and then we'll head over to Kara's apartment."

"Oh gawd, JJ," she said out loud. "You better not start any trouble with Nate's mom this year. I'm serious. I want one year without you going off about something and getting tossed out of her apartment."

"I'm not going to cause any problems this year," he said, "I don't care that she needs a thirty-minute prayer session before she takes a bite of food. I'll just doze off until she finishes with speaking in tongues this year."

"JJ, it's highly likely you will say something offensive to Nate's mom," Orion said, "You're notorious for getting under people's skin."

"I thought you were on my side, Orion," he said.

"I am," she said. "But the truth is the truth." When JJ pulled out his black, Gothic blouse, it had a small top hat with it. He put on some black underwear, the black pants, some black socks, and then his black, shiny leather boots. He walked over to Peppermint, slid between her legs, and kissed her romantically. It lasted for about ten minutes, and then Orion said, "You have about three minutes to make it to school."

"She's right," Peppermint said smiling. "We'll finish this up later, bub."

"Why don't you use your superpowers to dress faster? You take twenty minutes to dress when you could do it in a flash," Orion said, "Wasting time all the time."

"I want to just be a normal kid for now," he said.

Orion flew over to JJ, and then All of a sudden, she said, "Call coming from James Olsen."

"Put him through," JJ said.

"JJ, Supergirl's battling a large fire on the South End, and we have a bank heist on the North End. Little help?"

"On it,' he said. Suddenly, JJ and Peppermint took flight. He donned his black uniform with the white V on the front and she donned her white uniform, but with a skirt that covered up her stomach. In an instant, they landed in front of the First National City Bank.

"Orion, give me an idea of what's happening on the inside?" JJ said.

The palm computer raced into the bank, and then returned. "Six men with some special type of guns," she said, "The weapons aren't of this world." She paused for a moment, and then said, "They're on their way out."

"Anybody hurt?" JJ asked.

"Only scrapes and bruises," she said, "But those guns look like they're from Vordia. They're vordic designs."

"Vordia? That's Perilous world, right?" He asked.

"That's right," she said, "It's possible the time shift we felt was the advent of those weapons in a previous time."

When the men raced out of the building, the Vulcan said, "Give up, guys. It'll be in your best interest."

"Oh. It's the kid," one of the men said. "I was afraid it would be Supergirl. Let me tell you something, son, these weapons will destroy a little nosey kid like yourself."

When the Vulcan stepped forward, one of the miscreants fired a lava colored ray at him and it caused pain throughout his entire body. He fell to one knee and he thought a million tiny needles were sticking out of his skin.

"Told you he was no match for these weapons," the shooter said in a loud voice.

Suddenly, the Vulcan threw up in his mask. He began to puke violently as the men laughed. It angered him in such a way that the entire sky turned dark and cloudy.

"Oh shit! What in the fuck is happening?" One of the men asked. The ground began to shake as a golden glow encompassed the young hero. Where the energy weapon damaged him, it began to heal.

"Shoot him again!" One of the men screamed. When the lava-like ray left several of the weapons, the energy blast didn't do anything to the Vulcan. The orange goo encompassed his body but he brushed it off like it wasn't anything. It was like his body adapted to the energy.

"Well, that's a relief," Orion said, "I guess you're coming into your true powers."

A lightning bolt raced through the dark sky. It began to rain like the gods cried. The entire night sky looked like a series of electrical webbing, and then out of nowhere, a lightning bolt hit the first shooter in the chest, and he fell backward. The acrid smell of burning hair hit the Vulcan in the face. He pulled off his wet masked and then used a series of vibrations to hide his identity from the criminals. When the man hit the ground, he looked like he wasn't breathing at first while smoke ascended from his body. After a small pause, he started crying loudly, and then the Vulcan said, "Your weapons have no effect on me. Now, everybody else better give up."

All the men except one dropped their guns, laid on the ground, and placed their hands behind their backs. "Shit," one of the men said, "I'd rather go to prison than to endure a lightning strike."

"Why are y'all giving up like punks? That bitch Perilous said this gun would kill the Vulcan," The thief standing said.

"Dude, we tried that and nothing really happened! Besides, I'm scared of lightning," one of the other men said.

"A good lightning strike will make you flaccid," The Vulcan said laughingly. "Seriously, Viagra won't help you at this point."

When the last man standing raised his weapon, Ms. Sticky hit him with a pile of goo, and he was frozen in place. The Vulcan-with the power of his telekinesis-ripped the guns from the men's hands. He sent them through the air until they landed in Gotham in the Cadmus building.

As soon as that happened, the cops arrived on the scene. Maggie Sawyer was the first cop to arrive, and she placed all the men in handcuffs with the Vulcan's help. "Where're their guns?" She asked with a grimace.

"Cadmus has them now," the Vulcan said, "They had specialized weapons that we need to analyze. If you have any problems, contact Rachel Ballard with Cadmus on the weapons."

"Okay, Vulcan, but this might hurt the case," she said with a grimace. "If I can't get the guns, they might go free."

"Cadmus will work with you," he said calmly. "Are you going to Kara's for Thanksgiving?" The Vulcan asked as they walked near her car. The other cops took the bank robbers into custody while the Vulcan talked with Maggie.

"Probably not," she said with a grimace. "We're not hanging like that anymore. It would just be too hard for me."

"You really hate children that badly?" The Vulcan asked.

"I don't hate kids," she said with a grimace. "I just don't feel like I have room for kids in my life."

"Isn't that a little selfish?" Peppermint asked.

"No," she said, "Today, I just don't feel like I'm motherly material. It's really that simple." Maggie looked down at her watch for a moment, and then asked, "Shouldn't y'all be in class?"

"Shit!" The Vulcan said. He hugged Maggie, and then the couple took flight. As the team traveled through the sky, JJ said, "Orion, backpack."

"Yes, sir," she said. The palm computer flew into its designated place on the backpack and went to sleep. By the time he was back in Little Africa, the clouds dissipated and the sun began to show. There wasn't a soul outside of the school and everything felt peaceful and quiet. JJ and Peppermint landed about four blocks from the school behind a large, empty building. They walked down the street holding hands like they didn't just whoop on a bunch of thugs.

Class started at eight o'clock in the morning at the school, and when students came in late, they had to report to the Main Office after they went through the security checkpoint. But as they moseyed down the street, JJ couldn't help but think about the firearms the criminals possessed. He knew his body hadn't reached its zenith and he hadn't gone through the up and coming apotheosis, but the alien weapons barely had an effect on him. He didn't feel any differently, but he could reach further into the human mind than he ever could in the past.

"Orion, were you able to ascertain who made the alien weapons?" JJ asked as the couple continued their short walk to the school.

"Yes," she said from his backpack. "It appears Downing Chemical made the weapons in two thousand nine."

"What? How did that happen?" He asked. "When did they acquire that kind of technology?"

"According to the historical records, Downing Chemical in the Suicide Slums started working on a new, military tech in nineteen eighty-two. I believe Perilous Pearl traveled back to that time to create weapons to battle the Destroyer."

"Eighty-two?" He asked. "Why does that year resonate with me?"

"It was the year the clone of the Great Mother took Superman's DNA to create clones of him," Orion said, "He gave up his DNA to save his wife, but she died anyway. In nineteen ninety-five the Great Mother brought Lois Lane's clone to life."

He thought for a moment about what Orion told him, and due to the seriousness of the weapons, he wanted to learn as much information as possible about Downing Chemical. It was a possibility that alien tech could kill him or the Destroyer, but he doubted it.

JJ hated coming late to school because the security guards at the main entrance loved to take their sweet time inspecting student's gear. The heavyset, short-haired security guard was named Randy Burke. From the looks of it, he didn't wash his hair much. He had fine, white flakes in his hair that looked like dandruff. JJ looked at him closely for a moment because he sensed something off about the older man. The young hero tried not to look suspicious when he walked through the checkpoint, but he always had a bit of anxiety: fidgety hands, biting of the nails, and an uncertain feeling about the guard. The burly security guard scanned his bags and then tried to shoo him away when Peppermint placed her bag on the conveyor belt. He was one of the white guys with an Asian fetish, and he overheard him making disgusting comments toward Asian women in the past.

"Why are you just standing there?" Randy asked with a grimace. He looked angry at JJ, but it didn't phase the sixteen-year-old kid. "Go to class!"

"I'm not going anywhere until you're finished with my fiancée," he snapped, "So, hurry the hell up!" It was obvious the security guard's attitude agitated JJ, and due to the fact he didn't have complete control over his telepathic powers, he entered into the security guard's mind. He read his thoughts and they all had to do with hurting Peppermint and that bothered the young hero. He looked over at his fiancee as she placed her backpack on the conveyor belt.

Suddenly, a feeling of utter anger came over the young man, and he knew something inside of him had snapped.

"I'm going to have to do a comprehensive pat down of her," the guard said as he looked back at the young teen.

The anger that JJ felt inside of his soul was beyond normal. He hadn't ever felt so much rage in his entire life and he had a hard time keeping it under control. It had a significant meaning when he crossed the threshold of happiness into bitter anger, and now due to the fact the security guard had seedy thoughts about his fiancée, he wanted him dead. It meant he sensed he planned on doing something to Peppermint or he held some kind of insidious thought about her.

Officer Burke looked back at JJ with a devious grin on his face. "If I tell you to do something, you do it," Officer Burke said. "You best learn to obey my orders."

"I'm not doing anything you say," the young man snapped. "I know all about the girls you have trapped in your basement."

Suddenly, Officer Burke turned toward the young teen like he wanted to attack him. "You mutherfuck…" When the security guard touched JJ, he dropped dead of a heart attack. The death happened almost instantaneously upon touching the young man's shoulder.

JJ screamed, "Help." Orion immediately called for an ambulance, but it took nearly thirty minutes for it to arrive. The hallway flooded with students, and he noticed his girlfriend gave him a look of bewilderment for a moment. Once the paramedics carted the body away, Peppermint asked him a few questions.

"Did you kill that man?" She asked with a grimace.

"Yes," he said, "Now you never have to ask me that again."

"But why?" She asked, "He appeared harmless."

"He was thinking about raping you," he said, "He wanted to put your body on rusty hooks and rape you to death. When female students arrived late for school, he took them into that small closet and raped them." He pointed to the closet at the bottom of the stairs from the security guard station. "Nobody believed them when they complained."

"So you killed him?" She asked.

"Yes. Quit asking me that! I killed him, and I'd do it again," he said. "Now, go to class. I have to make some phone calls."

"What's going on?" She asked.

"Mister Burke isn't who he claimed to be, Peppermint," he said with a grimace. "I know you think I killed him just to kill him, but you didn't see inside his head. He's part of the Libertines. He has a basement with about eight girls locked in it right now."

"I will take your word for it," she snapped. JJ looked at her for a moment, and then pressed his head against hers and filled her mind with what he saw.

"Don't ever doubt me, Peppermint," he said with a serious look on his face. "I've always been honest with you."

"I know," she said frantically. "Call Maggie and tell her about this. All my gawd." She had a look of shock on her face after JJ installed his memories into her head. He flooded her mind with the information he obtained from the security guard's mind. She received a memory of all his perverted acts and it obviously caused her some discomfort.

He kissed his girlfriend passionately on the lips and then JJ left school, donned his Vulcan uniform, and ran into Maggie at the police station. "What are you doing here, Vulcan?"

"Come with me?" He asked calmly. The Vulcan walked her out the back of the precinct, down the hill, and near a small tarn. "You heard about the officer having the heart attack at Little Africa High about an hour ago?" He looked down at his watch while Maggie stood in front of him. She was short compared to the tall, sixteen-year-old hero. The Vulcan stood nearly six-foot-four inches.

"Yeah," she said with a grimace. He looked at her with a straight face for a moment, and then a frantic look came on her face. Immediately, she asked, "What did you do?"

"I try to be a good guy, Maggie. I really do. I try to do the right thing," he said. "But I have a temper."

"What did you do, JJ?" She asked.

"I stopped his heart for the greater good," he said with a calm visage. "He has cameras set up all over the school, in the bathrooms, and everywhere. He's been raping and photographing young girls for years."

"Is that why you stopped his heart?" She asked.

"No. You need to go into his home right now," he said with a grimace. "You just received an anonymous tip on the National City Rapist."

"What will I find?" She asked.

"You need to go in with a bomb squad," he said. "There are eight girls in his basement, chained up, and terrified. The entire house is wired to explode." He handed her a piece of folded up notebook paper. "This is the code to turn off his security system and the location of every bomb in the house."

"Why are you always doing nice things for me?" She asked.

"The world has about two hundred years to make a change for the better," he said, "If the top cop in National City is a gay woman, then it may open hearts and minds to the community."

Later in the day...

JJ lay on the floor of his bedroom, the television was on in the background, and Peppermint was partially nude underneath the sheets. They had been engaged in coitus for over an hour after school For a few hours, they had slept and now JJ was laying in the middle of the floor studying. They were studying some coursework and preparing for several huge examinations given by the state. It was imperative that the school scored an overall score of seventy percent, and most of the instructors encouraged their students to study hard. The state gave the test the first week of March, and Little Africa always did poorly on the examination. National City wanted to be separated from Little Africa because they claimed they brought down the overall score.

The media flashed a picture of Brad Winifred, the television reporter across the screen, and he didn't pay too much attention to it at first. He was the reporter that JJ exposed on television about molesting and killing kids, and he brought down the entire National City Libertine network on live television. He turned up the volume on the television set slightly, and the reporter stated another inmate murdered him.

"Brad Winifred was murdered?" JJ said aloud. He hopped to his feet to get a better view of the television set.

"He killed umpteen kids," Peppermint said as a matter of factly. "I didn't expect him to last too long."

"It looks like Judge Mike Sampson will be at the National City Courthouse tomorrow," he said with a grimace. "Orion, can you search the Dark Web about a hit on the judge? If the Libertines put a hit on Brad, then I'm almost sure they'll take out the judge too. He was just as much a player as anybody else in National City."

"Searching," she said. "There's a plan assassination of him tomorrow during his arraignment."

"Please send that information to Maggie's Blackberry, Orion," he said, "She needs to be in the loop on this. In fact, send the information to James and Kara. We need to know more about this threat."

"Message sent," she said.

"Can you give me a probable location of the main organization?" He asked. "I need a match above eighty percent."

Orion informed him later about a superhero named Radiant Wasp who took down the Libertine Council in Gotham City around the year twenty-thirty-one, and from the men involved with the organization in National City, he believed they wore the same crest.

"If you look at all the data about the Libertines you can find on the Dark Web, can you approximate how many active members exist locally?"

"Just talking about probabilities," the computer said, "National City can have anywhere between seventy-two to one hundred active members. But please understand, we're talking about active members of the Libertines who engage in liberties with children. When looking at sexual predators as a whole, we estimate over fifty thousand in this city ranging from flashers to rapists."

"Damn!" Peppermint exclaimed, "That's crazy."

"This is troublesome," JJ said. "Where do we even began to tackle this issue?"

"It is a big one," Orion said, "In fact, it's an issue for humankind."

Catco…

JJ flew into James' office while Olsen was on the phone. He was eating a chocolate bar and staring at his photo on the far end of the office with darts in it. "Bastards are always disrespecting me," he said under his breath.

"The Ball is Wednesday night," James said while speaking on the phone. "I have two extra tickets. It's free." He paused for a moment, and then said, "They're just going to go to waste then."

"Ooooo tickets," JJ said as he snatched them out of James' hands and looked them over for a moment.

When James hung up the phone, he sat back in his chair and looked at JJ for a moment. "It's Catco's Formal Ball," he said, "All the big dogs from other organizations will be there. Do you even have formal wear?"

"It's Wednesday, right?" JJ asked with a grimace. "Right before Thanksgiving?"

"Yeah," he said. "People love dressing up at these things. You know? In prestigious outfits?"

"I have just the outfits for Peppermint and me. We're going to be looking boxy." JJ placed the tickets in his coat pocket, and then said, "I was studying for the state examines in March, and I caught the segment on Brad Winifred."

"Yes," he said, "He deserved his day in court, but an inmate attacked him and killed him."

"Who was the inmate?" JJ asked with a grimace, "'Cause I truly think it was a hit."

"Nobody knows," he said, "But what makes you think it was a hit?"

"I've been working on my telepathy, and I'm quite clumsy at this time, but I might be able to find out if anybody knows anything at the prison. It could've been a simple killing, but I doubt it."

"How?" He asked. "How will you be able to tell one mind from the other?"

"I will scan them individually," he said. "It'll drain me, but I think I can come up with something." JJ stood in the far corner of the room while James continued to work. He then set down in an Indian stance, and concentrated, and let his mind leave his body. It roamed the countryside until it crept into the prison halls. He attached to Eric Nitcher's thoughts, and the old man was panicking. He was one of the guys arrested in the big sting. He went deep into the criminal's mind, saw the murder of his comrade, and obtained a visualization of the killer. He then left Eric's mind and lurked around the prison until he found the face that matched Eric's thoughts. The man's name was Art Bishop, a large, metahuman with the ability to slide through walls.

"Orion, look up Art Bishop?" JJ asked. "When you find him, display his image on James' monitor." It took about three minutes before Orion returned with an image of the man. He had been in the system for a few years, but he had ties to very powerful people.

"This is the guy?" James asked as he looked up at the screen. "He does look ferocious."

"Yeah," JJ said. "He's definitely not boxy. Unfortunately, we don't have any tangible evidence that he's the killer. My telepathic abilities aren't allowed in a court of law." Orion hovered next to JJ's head for a moment. When he turned to his robotic companion, he said, "Orion, create a fake news article stating Art Bishop is the killer," he said. "Make sure his face is prominently displayed in the article, and then send it to every major news outlet in the world."

"Yes, JJ," Orion said, "We can just say according to an anonymous source."

"What are you two trying to accomplish?" James asked.

"I'm hoping his handlers will think he's compromised and stall the executions," he said. "In any case, they all have information on the hive, and if they're put down, then we can't expose the other members."

"Just read their minds," he said.

"I tried," he said, "Apparently, they're in hoods when they meet. Nobody knows the other members of the upper echelon of the organization. In fact, I don't know any of the players in the other cities and countries." He sat in a chair in front of James' desk, and then said, "Orion gave me a rough estimate of seventy-two to a hundred members in National City."

"What was the name of the organization again?" James asked.

"Libertines," he said. "It's a Roman word that means freed slave or a man who's sexually promiscuous."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

The CATCO Ball…

JJ and Peppermint flew to the ball, landed in James' Office, and they were in their full steampunk, formal clothing. James sat behind his desk in his lavish office and watched a report on Black Lightning on Daily Planet Television or The DPT Network. JJ wore a blue suit with a ruffled white shirt underneath it. He had on a bedazzled black belt encrusted with what looked like diamonds. The suit fitted his v-framed body nicely. In addition, he had a blue top hat and a walking cane with black boots. He looked dapper.

Peppermint, on the other hand, wore a ruffled, sapphire dress with a black corset over it. The blackness of the ruffled top obscured the size of her belly, but in his opinion, she looked good regardless. She had some black, high heel boots, and a black fedora. The necklace had the pentagram symbol on it, and it fit right above her pronounced cleavage.

James had on a plain, nothing special business suit, and JJ replied, "It doesn't hurt to be flashy sometimes, James. It's fun."

"You guys kill me," he said laughingly, "You love your steampunk and gothic wear," he said, "I didn't think anybody could overdress for a formal, but here we are."

When they entered the ballroom, it was huge and spacious, and people kind of stood around while the band, "This Band Sucks," played lounge music. It was sparsely crowded at six o'clock in the evening. Kara walked past them wearing what appeared to be an exotic gown with a diamond encrusted mask. It wasn't real diamonds but meant to bring about a certain look and feel. She pulled her mask up, winked at JJ, and said, "Don't look so serious!"

In JJ's opinion, the place had a sadness about it, the kind of sadness mostly found at funerals. He watched Kara as she socialized with some of her coworkers including Winn and Snapper. It was no more than twenty-something people in the room at six o'clock, but he noticed people trickling into the ball every few minutes. James walked over to Kara, twirled her around for a few minutes, and then scurried off to another room. When he did that, JJ followed right behind him because he knew the Superman Formula that Rachel Ballard gave him caused outburst of anger in him.

"Are you doing okay?" JJ asked. It was a small closet in the next room over where James tried to compose himself. He knew his friend had several bouts of anger since Rachel injected him with the formula, but that was to be expected.

"I'll be okay. Just give me a minute?" He asked. "It's like all the pain and hurt I've ever experienced in life just came to a head."

"How many episodes are you having a day?" JJ asked calmly.

"Maybe two. Sometimes three," he said, "It depends."

When JJ began to walk out of the room, he looked back at James and said, "How long are you going to deny your feelings for Kara? Maybe that's the reason you keep having these fits of anger."

"We live in two different worlds, Kara and I," he said calmly.

"You fought a god," JJ said, "You can fly and your skin is like steel. You're losing me on this two different worlds nonsense. You were giving the gift of the gods on that fateful night. You either make your move or somebody else will."

"I'll pass on that," he said calmly. "I'm her boss now. It would be inappropriate."

"Whatever," JJ said as he walked out of the room.

JJ walked up to Peppermint, placed his arms around her, and kissed her gently on the left side of her neck. They raced over to one of the servers as he walked around the room with a tray of caviar and other expensive treats. At first, he took a chocolate truffle but turned his nose up at the fish eggs. He then took an apple slice and dipped it in some chocolate sauce. He held Peppermint's left hand as they meandered around the room and winced at the horrible music.

"Mark is sucking on purpose," JJ said with a grimace. "How can my teacher suck like this?"

"Honestly, it's lounge music," Peppermint said smiling. "I don't think it can be made to sound like what we're used to."

"It's supposed to sound like this," James said, "Boring and uninviting."

"Oh. We really need Vera here," JJ said, "We'll rock this joint Little Africa style."

JJ immediately noticed several people watching him and his girlfriend as they took in the ambiance of the large room. James confabulated with a woman with solid chocolate hair, a svelte frame, and beautiful green eyes. When JJ saw her, he immediately became infatuated with the way she carried herself. She then left out of the ballroom, and JJ continued to focus on her image as he traipsed around the room with Peppermint. At this time, over two hundred people stood around the large room confabulating about life.

"I'm going to try that caviar," Peppermint said. "It looks horrible, but it's caviar. Expensive shit." They walked over to one of the guys holding the massive tray of fish eggs, and they both slather some on a few crackers and ate them.

"Not bad," he said. "Not bad at all. I'm not sure what I expected, but it tasted alright."

Suddenly, Mark Hammond of "This Band Sucks" played the wrong note, and JJ glared over at him like he committed a crime. He whipped his head around so fast that it caught Peppermint off guard. It was like he punched him in the throat when he played the wrong key.

"Is that fool having a stroke?" JJ said to Peppermint.

"I wonder if anybody noticed," she said, "He never misses a note."

Immediately, JJ walked up to a burly looking man with a balding head. The man only stood about six-foot-two. When JJ stood next to the man, he towered over him by two inches. He wanted to get a feel for the overall age of the audience in the room. He asked, "When were you born, sir?"

"Why do you want to know?" He asked with a befuddled look.

"I'm trying to get an understanding of what kind of music you might like because this lounge music is for the birds," he said.

"Nineteen seventy," he said, "Give me a bit of Guns N Roses and then it's party time."

"Alright then," JJ said as he turned to the man's partner. "Ma'am, were you born in that era too?"

She shook her head in agreement, and then James came up to him.

"That's a very important man, JJ," he said, "Please don't get me in trouble with the stockholders."

"Oh. I can promise you I'll make you a hero before this night's over," he said, "It's about to get boxy!"

For nearly thirty minutes, JJ discussed ages and music with people all over the room, and he estimated that it was some time for some mid-eighties rock-n-roll music. He walked over to "This Band Sucks," and stood directly in front of them with an angry smirk on his face. He mean-mugged his mentor, Mark, while eating caviar and crackers. They spent about five minutes dipping their crackers in the fish eggs while giving him the evil stir of intimidation.

"What?" Mark asked, "Why are you acting crazy, JJ?"

"You know why," JJ said. He had a serious look on his face, but it was obvious he was deadpanning. "No more of this nonsense music. Let's rock this joint like we owned the place."

"Fine!" Mark exclaimed. "I got Guns & Roses."

"I have Poison," JJ said.

"I'm rocking Madonna," Peppermint said.

When Mark handed JJ a guitar, he stepped to the microphone, and he saw James give him a befuddled look. He pointed directly at James and then said, "Ahem. Ahem." He looked around the room for a moment with a huge smile on his face. "Okay. How is everybody feeling tonight? I'm glad everybody made it to CATCO's Annual Ball. I'm here with my lovely fiance, Peppermint Lee, music mentor, Mark, and we're going to bring you some good ole fashion eighties music tonight. When we're done, you can thank James Olsen." JJ performed a quick riff, and the entire room ignited with joy. "This song is for all the people who were just trying to figure out life in the eighties. "Talk Dirty To Me' by Poison."

JJ strummed the chords hard, and then the drum roll came, and he immediately started singing the lyrics, and the people danced around the floor and enjoyed the music. He actually left the platform and sang while standing on the main floor and the people loved it. The people formed a train around the room, danced, and also sung along with the lyrics. The song segued right into Guns N Roses, "Sweet Child O' Mine." Mark stepped up to the microphone, and JJ fell to the background, and the older man started singing like nothing else mattered. He had the entire crowd swaying back and forth with him to the sound, and they played three other songs the same way before JJ and Peppermint went back to socializing, dancing, and eating some good food. At that point, the room was upbeat and most of the people had smiles on their faces.

James walked up to JJ, and said, "I should've had more faith when you approached the stage. The party is really happening now."

"Mark trained me," JJ said with a smile. "I took lessons from him for most of my childhood."

For the next three hours, JJ, Peppermint, and Mark took turns singing to the people, and from what he could tell, they kept the party alive. They'd play for about thirty minutes, take a fifteen-minute break, and then return back to the stage.

When Peppermint returned to the stage about nine fifteen, she sat in a chair off to the side, and JJ stepped behind the keyboard. He started off with a deep bass sound, and Peppermint started singing, "Like a Virgin." Even with her bulging belly, her Madonna impression was captivating. The entire room stopped while she sang and watched her dance around the stage. The entire crowd of professionals rocked back and forth, and then came in the woman with the chocolate black hair who wowed JJ earlier. He found her looks enticing and captivating, and for the first time, he looked past his Peppermint to another woman who was twice his age. When he finished with Peppermint's song, he stumbled off the stage and told his fiancee to continue to play while he caught his breath.

When he was at the threshold of the ballroom door, he looked back at the chocolate haired woman, and she winked at him. She excited him the same way his Peppermint did, but now he felt out of control. The thought of the black-haired woman intertwined in white bed sheets raced through his mind. He ran down the back stairwell with an erection pushing against his zipper and he didn't know why. He tried to think through what he had just experienced, but she remained on his mind the whole time. He didn't understand any of it. He didn't know her name or anything about her, but he wanted her like she was the only woman on the planet. He didn't know if she was a blithering idiot or plain evil, but he wanted her nonetheless. He knew everything he needed to know about Peppermint, and for the time being, it was like his pregnant fiance didn't matter. He knew every inch of his fiance's body and her mannerisms. He knew how she sneezed, and what she looked like when she became happy, sad, or angry. He knew he loved her until the lady with the black hair caught his attention. Now, all he wanted was the girl with the black hair.

When he entered the foyer of CATCO, he looked at the far wall, and it had a picture of the woman he found so attractive. Her name was Lena Luthor. But from what he could tell, her picture did nothing for him. He didn't feel anything for her at all. But when he looked at Peppermint's photo, he did with so much love and compassion. He didn't understand what was happening to him. Peppermint was still his one and only, but he felt an insurmountable attraction to Lena Luthor.

"Orion, is there a history of me giving up my one and only love for another?" JJ asked. The robotic disc flew out of his inner coat pocket and right next to Lena's picture. JJ didn't have a memory of when he was the god Ptah who decided the fate of worlds and destroyed an entire universe. It was only a story that Perilous Pearl told him, but he didn't know that person at all.

"Yes," she said. "You fell in love with a much older woman named Lena Luthor according to my databases. This is a picture of her." A red pointer came out of the disc and on to the picture of Lena.

JJ's heart broke for a moment because he didn't want that to be the case. Orion hovered by his head as he stood in the foyer of CATCO Media. He looked at Lena's picture on the wall for a moment and tried to understand how she became his lover. "But what of Peppermint and I?" He asked.

"You became husband and wife," she said. "It is and always shall be."

"Then I truly don't understand," he said calmly. "How did I ever come to love another? It's like I've gone mad."

JJ walked back up to the ballroom, headed back for the stage, and grabbed the guitar. When she finished with her song, he screamed out, "With or Without You." It was a smooth melody. Lena approached the bottom of the stage in her ruffled, black dress. He danced around in her green eyes and began singing directly to her, "See the stone set in your eyes. See the thorn twist in your side. I wait for you." Lena reached out for him and when their hands met, the crystal's glow encompassed both of them. The entire room lit up in the brightness. When he finished with the song, Peppermint walked over to him and complained about a sadness that overwhelmed her heart. Dark circles appeared under her eyes, and JJ immediately realized something was wrong with his fiancee.

"Something's happening to me," Peppermint said with a scowl on her face. He gave the guitar back to Mark, and "This Band Sucks" continued with the music. He escorted Peppermint to the far side of the room and sat her down for a moment. He looked her directly in the face, and then kissed her on the lips. "What's happening to me, JJ?"

"I don't know," he said with a grimace. "Something is happening to both of us." He placed his hands on either side of her face, but Peppermint began to sob loudly.

"I think we need to leave," she said with a stressed look on her face. "All of a sudden I fear I've lost you, but you're right in front of me. Am I going mad?"

When they walked out of CATCO, they took the bus back to Little Africa. Peppermint laid her head on his right shoulder and cried a little. "Have I lost you?"

"Never," he said, "You will always be my girl, Peppermint."

Home…

It was Wednesday evening, about eleven o'clock, and the next day was Thanksgiving. He pulled off Peppermint's clothing and tucked her into his bed, and then she cried herself to sleep. Quickly, he placed on some sweatpants with a black t-shirt that had Superman's symbol on it. He walked into the living room and discussed some things with Orion about Lena Luthor.

"Orion, when I saw Lena Luthor, I had an immediate attraction to her and Peppermint had feelings of dismay. It had something to do with her, but I can't figure out what. Please explain this?" He said. Sitting on the couch, he watched Orion as she hovered next to the television set.

"You are imbued with Ptah's god-spark and that dates back to nearly a million years ago. You are Ptah, and by the time you reach your twenty-first birthday, you will have all his powers and memories. Peppermint is imbued Sekhmet La's god-spark," she explained. "There's a crystal normally kept by the Deceivers that caused Ptah to fall in love with the daughter of his enemy. It caused his wife to commit suicide."

"Lena wore a necklace with a white crystal on the end of it," JJ said. "When I touched her hand, it's glow encompassed us both. It was almost like it united us."

"She must remove the crystal immediately," Orion said. "Don't have sex with her while she wears it. It will put you further under her spell." She paused for a moment, and then said, "But I must warn you, the Deceivers are your progeny as well. In those days, nearly two hundred thousand years ago, the Deceivers called themselves The Dawdians. Before Sekhmet La you loved a Succubus who mothered the races that want to annihilate you."

"This is madness," he said softly. "Why do they hate me? I'm nothing more than one insignificant being in a vast universe."

Orion laughed. "It's because you don't have access to your memories." She paused for a moment, and then said, "Do you remember the dream where I was a siren?"

"Yeah," he said.

"I was a Siren five million years ago," she said softly. "We were married and lived on a hill with a community of Trilobites who served us. I was your wife and Veo was your son."

JJ stood to his feet for a moment, and then asked, "Why did you return to me?"

"Because I will always love you," she said. "But even with that said, I also feel the sting of the necklace too for Sekhmet and I are the same. You took my mind from the Neuronet, placed it into a Deceiver soldier, and turned her into a goddess."

"Peppermint is you?" He asked with a grimace.

"Yes," she said, "Once your memories return you will understand. Now, you must have Kara remove the necklace from Lena's neck. Anybody who feels the betrayal of you and Lena's love can't remove the necklace."

"Connect me with Kara?" He asked.

"She's on now," Orion said.

"Kara, I'm in big trouble!" JJ exclaimed. He paced back and forth in the living room while he discussed the problem with Supergirl.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"It's Lena Luthor. She's wearing a white crystal necklace used to woo me. At the same time, it's pushing Peppermint. She must take it off before it's too late."

"Wait? That's meant to woo Ptah," she said, "Damn! This means the ancient portrait in the museum is you."

"Ancient portrait?" He asked.

"Yes," she said, "It's an ancient drawing of you and Peppermint. It freaked me out when I saw it. I thought it was just a coincident."

"Well, I'm Ptah, but I don't have any memory of my past. Ptah's the Egyptian name for the Vulcan," he said calmly. "I'm begging you to have her remove the crystal from around her neck. I can't remove it because when I'm near it, all I want is her."

"Is it really causing an issue with you?" Kara asked.

"Please, Kara. This is life and death for everybody affected by the necklace," he said, "I exist. I'm the Ptah of old reincarnated. If somebody had Kryptonite and was in the process of killing you, I'd eradicate it. Lena has a magical crystal that will destroy my family, and I'm asking you to eradicate it for me."

"Fine," she said.

JJ sat on the couch for about an hour, but his feelings for Lena hadn't subsided one iota. It angered him because he begged Kara to do the right thing, but she couldn't understand the gravity of the situation. He didn't understand why she didn't take him seriously because he never did things that didn't matter.

"If she pulled the necklace off Lena's neck, I would think my attraction for her would've subsided," he said softly.

"She hasn't done it yet," Orion said. "As soon as the necklace comes off, the nexus is broken."

"I'm going over to Kara's house," he said, "I can't live like this."

He walked out of the apartment complex, took flight, and landed over at Kara's apartment in a matter of seconds. He rapped on Kara's front door, and when it opened, Lena was on the other side wearing a football jersey. Her face hypnotized him, and he couldn't control himself. Immediately, his erection pushed against the zipper on his pants and it was like he didn't have any control over it. The white crystal lit up the dimly lighted room.

Lena stood in front of him in a red, oversized football jersey with double zeros as the picture on the front of it. Her hair was in a ponytail, and her skin shined. Her green eyes were appetizing, and he wanted to back out of the apartment, but couldn't. She wore sexy black panties and had the necklace on the outside of her shirt. Without an invite, he walked directly into Kara's apartment in a hypnotic state. He looked around but didn't see her at all.

"Where's Kara?" He asked as he adjusted his manhood.

"She's out for a bit," Lena said with a smile. When she looked back at JJ, she placed her right hand around his narrow waist. "You're in such great shape."

He smiled at her for a moment, and then said, "Thank you."

"Why am I so attracted to you?" She asked with a soft smile. She placed her left, index finger in her mouth, and it indicated to him that she performed fellatio. He wanted her so badly that he could barely see straight. But at the same time, she was well in her thirties and old enough to be his mother. As soon as he sat on the couch, she climbed on his lap, and he found her perfume enticing. When she hugged him, he could feel her breast push against his chest. He reached for the necklace and then became overwhelmed with dread. Just the thought of taking the necklace from her caused him dismay.

"Where's Kara again?" He asked in the hopes she could stop what was about to happen.

"Working on a story at the office," she said, "James needed her to finish a story on me taking ownership of CATCO Media." Pulling down his pants, he didn't know what to do. He wanted it, but he didn't want it. He didn't expect to see her at Kara's apartment, and he was unprepared for coitus with an older woman. He placed her on the couch for a moment and walked over to the kitchen for some water while in his underwear. When he returned to the couch, she immediately pulled down his undergarment and exposed him. He stood in front of her completely nude, and he didn't have the ability to stop what was happening. When he tried to back away from her, she clasped his buttocks with both hands and shoved his meaty part into her mouth. Everything happened so fast that he didn't know how to stop it, and the necklace wouldn't let him refuse her advances. Within a few minutes, she had already caused him to climax, but it didn't abate his erection. Without hesitation, he pulled down her panties, climbed between her legs, and inserted his member into her. Suddenly, it became savage, and they wrestled all over Kara's couch, took it to the floor and in every position imaginable. It went on for hours, and even though he heard Kara running up the stairs, he didn't try to hide what was happening between him and Lena. When the door opened, he heard Kara scream.

"Oh, my gawd!" She exclaimed. It was so loud that JJ actually looked up for a moment. When the young man stood to his feet, and she saw his business, she tried to hide her eyes. "I think I've died and gone to hell."

"You have to remove the necklace, Kara," he said. "Do you really think Lena would be attracted to a sixteen-year-old kid?"

Kara ran up to Lena, snatched the necklace from around her neck, and Lena screamed at the top of her lungs. It sounded like Kara was killing her, but he knew exactly what happened. Even though his erection subsided immediately, he knew he wasn't done with Lena. Due to the fact that she wore the necklace, she'd go through the greatest amount of loss after it was removed. At some point, he feared the loss would drive her mad.

"What's happening to you, Lena?" Kara asked.

"I'm dying on the inside," she said as she stared at the ground with a sad look on her face. "I feel the greatest loss of my life."

"I'm going to need that necklace," JJ said in a strong voice. "I need to destroy it."

"But it's priceless," Kara said. JJ held up his right hand, and the necklace flew into it from Kara's hand. "So, your powers have grown?"

"I don't mean to be so forceful, but this necklace brought down an entire empire," he said. He clicked a button his watch, and then said, "Orion, how do we fix Lena?"

"JJ, I'm currently searching all the information throughout time on the necklace," she said. "Give me a day?"

"A day?" Lena asked. "Why do I feel so much love for you, JJ?" She asked. "But at the same time, I feel like there's a hole in my heart."

"It's because the legends about this necklace are real," he said.

"But you're not Ptah!" Lena exclaimed, "That's just myth."

"Actually, I am," he said with a smile. "You're still highly attracted to me, and if we can't find a cure, this might drive you insane."

"I just wore the necklace to be fashionable," she said with a grimace. "How could I have known it was real?"

"JJ, not that I'm complaining, but can you at least put some underwear on. Your dangling business is making it hard to concentrate."

"Sorry," he said, "I completely forgot I was nude." He slid into his underwear, and then into his pants. He was still barefoot. He handed Lena her undergarments, and she sat on the floor against the sofa.

"I'm sorry, JJ," Lena said. "If I had known…"

He placed his hand on the back of her neck. "I have my friend, Orion, working on this. We'll find a way to break this curse."

"I'm never going to get the image of you two having sex in the middle of my living room out of my mind," she said, "Might have to burn this building down."

"Quit acting like it's a big deal," JJ said.

"I'm going to bed, but if you made a mess, clean it up, JJ," Kara said, "We're having a ton of people over here tomorrow."

"I will," he said.

"I got it," Lena said with a straight face.

Kara walked into her room, closed the door, and then he laid his head on the left armrest. Lena sat with her back against the couch, and he could tell she was sobbing. "I wish there was some way I could heal your pain."

She laughed. "Give me the necklace back?" She asked.

"Other than that," he said. "You'll soon realize you have no love for me."

"I have strong feelings for you," she said. "But it's like you just broke up with me while we were at the zenith of our romance."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

JJ lay on the couch quietly thinking about his next move. Lena sat on the floor sobbing, and in less than a week's time, he expected she'd go mad with grief due to the curse. He wanted to find more information about the necklace, but it wasn't going to be easy. But he had hoped a similar spell existed on another world with similar incantations that Orion had in her database.

Regardless, vestiges of the curse affected him profoundly, and he felt a tug on his heart as well, but as long as Peppermint was safe, he could deal with it. He suspected what he felt would subside with time, but when it came to Lena, he expected her pain to linger until madness set in.

"I feel like the heartbroken fool," she said underneath her breath. He heard her but didn't want to interrupt her train of thought. She pulled her legs into her chest, arms wrapped around her knees, and tucked her head into them. She then asked, "How long will I have these feelings?"

"I don't know," he said as he placed his right hand on her shoulder. Her oversized shirt broke up the outline of her slender frame, and she was a nice lady, mid-thirties looking woman, but he didn't have any attraction to her. "I'll figure some way to make it right though."

She smirked. "There's nobody alive who knows about the crystal," she said, "It was located in the Congo under tons of rubble."

"I will research this matter," he said, "There's no evidence the crystal originated in the location your people found it. The entire region has held human life for nearly a million years."

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Commerce took place between the different nations and tribes," he said, "Surely, a charm with the ability to seduce a god would be of some value. What was the ancient kingdom called where your people found it? "

She pulled out her cell phone, went through some old emails, and then said, "Dawdian Kingdom." A sadness came over her, and she began to sob loudly. "The loss is too great," she said. "If you're Ptah, then why don't you remember any of this?"

"I hold his spark," he said with a smile. "I have my own mind outside of his, but I embody his essence." He sat up on the couch, and she sat between his legs. "There's a way to undo this, Lena."

"Why would Kara know a being like you?" She asked with a befuddled look on her face.

"It's because of Maggie and Alex that I know her," he said. "When the police department has a problem with a case, they call me."

"A kid?" She asked.

"A god," he said.

Four hours later…

JJ quickly cleaned up Kara's couch, put a nice comforter over it, and gave it a cozy feeling. He tried not to pay any attention to Lena as she sat in the Easy Chair snoozing, but when she completely closed her eyes, he swooshed around the room at lightning speed and had his mess completely clean.

The idea of Lena straddling him made him nauseous. The sex played repeatedly in his head, and he didn't understand why. He had the necklace deep in his pocket, but the memories of the grunts and moans lingered in his mind. It was almost a form of rape because he wouldn't have engaged in coitus with her under his own volition. There wasn't an attraction to her outside of the necklace. She lay back in the Easy Chair, legs pulled into her chest, and her panties didn't leave anything to the imagination. He hated himself for being fully erect.

Softly, he walked into Kara's room, and said, "I'll be back later."

"Fine," she mumbled. "Is Lena still here?"

"Yeah. She's asleep," he said.

She looked up at him for a moment, and then said, "Gawd, JJ. Do something about that thing?"

"It's just a morning woody," he said looking down at the floor. "It happens."

"Well, let it happen outside my bedroom," she said. "Anyway, be back around three thirty."

"Okay," he said.

Back home…

It was no more than six thirty in the morning, and Peppermint was still asleep in his bed. Opening up his closet door, it was very neat, tidy, and clean. Everything had its own place. There was an old, army ammo can in the far corner of the closet with a massive lock on it. He pulled the necklace out of his left pants pocket and looked it over for a moment. It was hard to believe the little charm wreaked so much carnage on the old world, but it did. In his closet, he had the olive grab ammo can with a heavy-duty lock on it to store his memories. He put in the combination, opened it, and placed the necklace in it. All he had in the can with the necklace was a bundle of old photographs of Peppermint, his father, mother, and himself. He considered it one of his most valued possessions, and he often checked on the can to make sure nobody tampered with it.

Quickly, he went into the bathroom. He looked at himself in the mirror and tried to understand what took place. In all his years, Peppermint was the only girl he ever loved. The fact that he engaged in sex with another woman cut him deeply, and he feared Peppermint wouldn't understand, but he had to tell her nonetheless. The smell of Lena covered his body; it was her acrid sweat that he hated the most. He tried to imagine if he would've found her enjoyable, if he wasn't with Peppermint, and if he was the same age as her, would he have liked it. But since he couldn't imagine life without Peppermint, he couldn't truly imagine enjoying Lena on any level.

He showered thoroughly and tried to wash every bit of Lena off his body. First, he gave himself a hot shower and hoped once he told her about his indiscretion, the entire episode would be in the past. He lathered up nicely until the suds covered him from head to toe, and then he rubbed his tenebrous skin as if to remove it. He hit all the essential areas that Lena touched. He must have spent twenty minutes scrubbing his body as if he were exposed to nuclear waste. Once he finished, dried off thoroughly, he put on some deodorant and brushed his teeth. He brushed repeatedly, rinsed with some strong mouthwash, and wiped around his lips assiduously.

When he walked back into his bedroom, his girlfriend was snoring loudly, and she looked extremely peaceful, so he nudged her awake. Slowly, she opened her eyes and smiled.

"I haven't slept that good in months," she said with a smile. JJ placed his hands on her belly to see if the baby was up, and the kid pushed out on her stomach. "Okay. So, we spend ninety minutes at Nate's. We spend ninety minutes at Vera's. And then we finish up at Kara's?"

"That sounds about right," he said. "I'm not eating breakfast."

"I'm going to eat a little something for the baby," she said. "Oh! Did you get the necklace?" She asked in an upbeat mood.

He looked over at her for a moment, sat on the bed, and said softly, "Yeah." He paused for a minute, and then said, "A lot happened last night."

She looked over at him for a moment with a calm demeanor, and said, "Just tell me."

"Kryptonians have their kryptonite. Gods have their magic," he said. "I thought Kara took the necklace from her, but she didn't." He paused for a moment. "When I walked into Kara's apartment, Lena stood in front of me wearing the necklace."

Peppermint began crying, and then asked, "You fucked her?"

"It's not what I wanted," he said with a grimace. "I tried to remove it from around her neck, and it caused me great dismay and pain." He stood up and walked back and forth as he watched the person he loved more than anything cry uncontrollably. "Kara saw Lena and I engaged in coitus, and she pulled the necklace off her neck. It freed you and me, but Lena's still trapped."

"My heart was so heavy last night, but then early in the morning, I felt such great relief that I went into a deep sleep," she said, "That must have been when the connection was severed."

"You shouldn't cry because you know I didn't do any of this under my own willpower," he said, "I've never thought of being with anybody except you."

"I know," she said with a half smile. "But it's my right as a girl to cry. I'm going to sit here and cry for a while, so let me do that. Okay?"


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

JJ and Peppermint walked over to Vera's house and entered without knocking. It wasn't unusual for them to barge into each other's houses without knocking because they had been so close since childhood. Vera sat on the couch and JJ sat down next to her and then laid his head on her lap while he placed his feet on Peppermint's lap. He listened around for Cooper, her little brother, but couldn't hear him rummaging around in his bedroom.

The trio dressed in dark, gothic clothing and JJ wore a black beret. He resembled some kind of gothic soldier, a look he had grown to love. Peppermint, on the other hand, wore a black, puffy dress with her hair in a ponytail. She wore black eyeliner that accentuated her almond-shaped eyes. Due to her pregnancy, she had much fuller breast and it pronounced her cleavage.

It was a cool day, approximately forty-seven degrees Fahrenheit. Diane, Vera's momma, kept the temperature inside the house pretty warm in the colder months so JJ always came prepared. He'd take off his shirt and have on a t-shirt and remove his pants and wear only gym shorts.

"Have you tired already?" Vera asked. "Did you have a big breakfast or something?"

"I barely got any sleep last night," he said, "We'll talk about it later."

"Oh. The CATCO Ball much have been a blast," she said.

"It was," Peppermint said, "You should've come. We made it a boxy event."

"Really?" She asked, "What did y'all play?"

"We went full eighties," JJ said, "It was a boxy event indeed."

JJ looked around the living room for a moment, and then asked, "Where's Coop?"

"Momma and Cooper are over her new man's house for Thanksgiving," she said, "He's a real thug type," she said, "I never complain about her boyfriends, but this guy just got out of prison." She paused for a moment, and then looked down at JJ as he had his head in her lap. "That brain upgrade didn't work when it came to her choices in men. What good is it to give her the brain of a doctor when she still makes the choices of a child?"

"But life is better overall, right?" He said.

"I guess," she said with a grimace. "She can't find any good work. There just isn't any good jobs."

"Let's get out of here," Peppermint said as she pushed JJ's legs off her lap. "We don't want to be late to Nate's house."

"You know Becky will be there?" Vera asked as she ran into the kitchen for her buttermilk biscuits.

"Really?" Peppermint said, "Is she moving in on your man or something?"

"She kind of moved in on him since we decided to put our relationship on a permanent hiatus," she said, "I just can't with him on that level anymore. At least not right now."

"He did pull that gun on you," JJ said as they walked out the front door.

"That's what I'm saying," she said, "Nobody can blame me for not trusting him right now. I know he was influenced by that alien chick, but still…"

"He's a good guy," Peppermint said, "Just give it time and maybe y'all can work it out."

Nate's Momma's House...

Becky sat on Nate's couch, and she wore her jean dress with the white top. She didn't have on any makeup, and she still suffered from the loss of Tommy Tater her boyfriend. Johnny walked out of Nate's bedroom in his camouflage pants and shirt, and he walked up to JJ, and they clasped hands, quickly hugged, and then let go.

"What's with the military gear?" JJ asked as he looked at the blouse of the uniform.

"It's comfortable," he said. "Besides, I've been working out, and refining my fighting skills."

"Don't feel bad about that woman taking you down," he said, "You'd have to be Supergirl to take out a fighting machine like her."

"Or the Vulcan and Ms. Sticky," Vera said with a huge smile on her face.

Peppermint brought a pecan pie on Tuesday and dropped it off at Nate's house on the same day, and Vera had some hot, buttermilk biscuits in a metal tray that JJ carried on the short journey to Nate's house. All three of them were dressed in their Gothic black clothing, and for reasons already stated, Peppermint looked distraught. He held her right hand as they stood in the middle of the living room.

Nate's Momma already had most of the table set, and when JJ, Vera, and Peppermint walked into the dining room, she said, "The atheists have finally arrived." JJ smiled. He looked over at the photo above the television set, and it was of Nate's father in his police uniform. Next to the television was a shelf with all the family photos, and there was a photo of Vera on the second shelf. They broke up after he pulled a gun on her, but they remained friends.

"Glad to see you too, Mrs. Parker," JJ said. He noticed the television was on in the background, and it was a large, seventy-two-inch television set. It had the newest video game console hooked to it. The Twelve O'Clock News with Bobby Baker was discussing the late Brad Winifred, and how he ruined his life and career. In addition, they showed an image of JJ when he was in the studio, and then he noticed they used certain negative words when referring to him. They called his Gothic clothing gangster wear and referred to him as an urban street thug on a mission to bring down National City's elite.

Becky laughed a little, and Vera waved like it wasn't an insult. "I'm heading back to school on Monday, guys," Becky said with a half smile. "I'm done with mourning Tommy." It was obvious she spent a lot of time crying and trying to move past her old flame. He couldn't tell her that Shonny held Tommy's conscience.

"It's going to be good to have the gang back," JJ said, "We've missed you." He hugged her, and then sat on the couch.

He looked at the television one more time when he heard Bobby Baker say, "A thug took down a respectable man. There's just not any proof linking him to the bodies in the field. And now that he's dead, we're sitting here wondering what we could have done to make it better."

"That's true," Nate said, "I miss the nights at Mikeymacks."

"Did you see that shit?" Peppermint whispered to JJ. "There was more than enough evidence linking that pedophile to those kids." Vera sat to the left of JJ, and he could feel her hips pushed up against his.

"What's the probability Bobby Baker is involved with this nonsense?" JJ asked of Peppermint.

"I would say more than seventy percent," she said with a grimace. "The Libertines are all over the place, and it's highly probable he's involved."

Vera smacked him on the knee closest to her. "Guys, are we going to talk shop all day?" Vera asked with a serious look. "It's time to hang with family, eat good food, and relax. We'll handle that idiot later."

"You're right," JJ said smilingly. "But that kind of nonsense angers me."

When it came time to eat, the entire time JJ kept repeating in his mind not to eat so much because they had to stop by Vera's house to eat a little later. And then after that, he had to stop by Kara's flat. The good thing about having Johnny at the table as he wasn't shy about stuffing his face. He took a big chunk of the turkey, dressing, and rolls. Vera anticipated Johnny would hog the food because he always hogged the food. They expected it.

"JJ, I have a plate for your mamma on the stove," Mrs. Parker said. "I know she's getting some much-needed rest, and won't be going anywhere to eat."

"Thank you, Mrs. Parker," JJ said.

"Peppermint, what are your parents doing for Thanksgiving?" Mrs. Parker asked.

"Turkey fried rice, egg rolls, and kimchi," she said. "It's a family tradition."

"You're not eating with them?" Mrs. Parker asked.

"Yes, ma'am," she said with a smile. "JJ and I will stop there this evening, and they'll berate us about babies having babies."

Everybody kind of laughed, and then Mrs. Parker said, "JJ and I often argue about things, but if anybody was going to have a baby at sixteen, I would hope it would be him. He's the wisest kid I've ever met."

JJ almost choked. "Well, thank you, Mrs. Parker." She wasn't one for platitudes, so he believed she was sincere. The whole moment caught him completely off guard. Johnny laughed, and Vera kept her head in her plate.

"But he's not modest," she said.

"That's true," Peppermint said. She bumped his shoulder, and then he smiled.

It was the first time since Tommy perished that all the gang ate together, but it wasn't the same. JJ missed his old friend on one hand but knew he wasn't dead. He lived inside Shonny, and they were now bitter enemies.

Vera's House…

As soon as JJ, Peppermint, and Vera arrived at Denise's house, they took off their shoes, relaxed, and since it was only two o'clock, they took a quick nap. Vera slept on the floor right underneath the couch, and JJ and Peppermint slept on opposite ends of the sofa.

As soon as three o'clock hit, JJ slowly set up, and then Denise said, "You lazy bums need to get up so we can eat."

"I think Mrs. Parker put sleeping pills in the food," Vera said. "That power nap invigorated me."

"It doesn't get any better than that," JJ said. He stood up off the couch and walked over to Denise's Lazy Boy. He took two hundred dollars out of his wallet, and set it underneath a beauty magazine, and then walked into the dining room. He was inconspicuous with how he slid the money under the magazine. He didn't put it in the pages but placed it underneath it. He knew she hadn't found any employment, and he didn't want Thanksgiving to strain her budget.

"So, who did your hair?" Peppermint asked with a smile. "The braids are perfect."

"Dee's Beauty Shop," she said, "It only cost thirty bucks."

"Told you it was perfect, Momma," Vera said. "Cooper, get in here."

Her brother walked into the dining room with a scowl on his face, and the first thing he said was, "I don't like turkey."

"Seriously?" JJ said. "I thought everybody liked turkey."

"My favorite is the dark meat," Peppermint said. "Just give me a good ole fashion turkey leg, and I'm as happy as can be."

After Denise said grace, JJ pushed a button on his watch, and then fifteen minutes later, he heard his car pull up to the front of the house. He called it, "The Messiah." Since he had to travel to National City, he wanted to go in style. After a few minutes in front of the house, it turned off, and then Peppermint looked over at him.

"Is that Messiah?" She asked with a calm visage.

"Yes," he said, "We're riding in style today." He paused for a moment, bit into the turkey, and then asked, "How did you get it so tender?"

"I cooked it with love," Denise said with a smile. She drank a glass of wine, and then took a bite of her stuffing. "JJ, can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Yes," he said. They walked on the back porch, and it was cold. It seemed the temperature plunged about ten degrees. The back porch was enclosed and a bit of cool air blew in from a small hole in the right corner. JJ folded his arms to listen to Diane speak.

"Can you loan me one hundred dollars until the first?" She asked with a grimace. "It's just I'm out of food." He could see how uncomfortable she was about asking for money, but it wasn't her first time to do so.

"I tell you what, Denise, you better be providing for your kids. Are you boozing again?" He asked.

"Hell no," she said, "I've been sober for a while now."

They walked back into the living room, and he picked up the magazine, and she grabbed the money, stuffed it in her bra, and smiled. "How did you know?"

"I practically live here," he said. He sighed and then walked back into the dining room.

"What was that about?" Peppermint asked. He rubbed his right thumb over the side of his right index finger, and that indicated money. Peppermint understood immediately.

When the clock hit three o'clock, Peppermint, Vera, and JJ walked out of the house, and Vera asked, "Is that Messiah?"

"Yeah," he said with a smile.

"Hello, sir," Messiah said. "What's the destination?"

"Kara Danvers," he said.

"Orion, cradle," he said. That meant Orion position herself in the data slot, and it allowed her to do quick searches on the Dark Web. "Orion, can you pull up Bobby Baker's internet searches, and if he's been dabbling in illicit behavior?"

"Yes, sir," Orion said. "He actually did several searches on your home address."

"What was that?" Peppermint asked. Her eyes grew bigger than life for a moment.

"It appears he's looking for a criminal record on you," she said. "He has uploaded illicit images of several kids to the Dark Web. Analyzing the faces of the kids with social media sites across the nation."

"Orion, can you suss out if he spoke to anybody about me?" JJ asked.

"He was within the same vicinity as Jason Todd for approximately fifteen minutes two days ago," she said.

"Who's that?" Vera asked.

"Wasn't he the second Robin?" Peppermint asked with a grimace.

"Yeah," he said, "He's an assassin called the Red Hood now." He thought for a moment as the car pulled in front of Kara's apartment. "Orion, can you ascertain what they discussed?"

"It was about a payment concerning the killing of Brad Winifred, but nothing on you," she said. "I will continue my investigation of Bobby Baker, sir. Keep a lookout for this Red Hood. He's dangerous."

Kara's Apartment…

JJ, Peppermint, and Vera walked inside, and James sat in the Easy Chair wearing a basic t-shirt, jeans, and walking shoes. Alex gave JJ and Peppermint a hug as soon as they walked into the house. She said, "Thanks for coming."

Kara cut onions in the kitchen, and she looked up at JJ for a moment, pointed the knife at him, and said, "Don't start nothing and it won't be nothing." It baffled him at first because he didn't know what she meant. But since he had to use the bathroom, he didn't have time to decipher her strange, National City code. The bathroom door was closed, and he could sense Winn on the other side.

He tapped the door, and asked, "Winn, is that you?"

"You know it is," he said from the other side. "Just give me a minute."

When he turned towards the back bedroom, Lena sat on the edge of the bed looking down at the ground. Her face bare and drab-and saddened, and when he opened the door wide enough for her to see him, she looked up with her empty, emerald eyes.

"Are you doing better?" JJ asked calmly. He walked into the bedroom, stood by the door, and waited for her to reply.

"The wound is fatal," she said with a scowl on her face. "I don't see myself moving past this."

"I think you will," he said in a strong voice. "I'll just remind you that you're Lena Luthor." He heard the bathroom door open, and said, "It'll get better in time."

He ran into the bathroom, and it smelled like death.

A few minutes later…

JJ, Peppermint, and Vera took their shoes off and set them in the back bedroom. They didn't pay any attention to Lena because she laid back on the bed with a pillow over her face. When they walked back into the living room, they grabbed some UNO Cards and played a game. James and Alex played a violent video game on the gaming console, and then Vera and Peppermint quickly helped Kara set the table. Winn stood behind James and watched him play the video game. After about five minutes, Lena walked into the living room, sat in front of JJ, and played a game of UNO. When he placed down a yellow card, her right hand quickly touched his, and she kept it there for a minute. Quickly, he pulled his hand back, looked at her, and tried to determine what she was thinking.

"It's ready, guys," Kara said with a smile. James sat at the end of the table closest to the living room. Kara sat at the other end, and Alex sat next to Kara. Vera sat adjacent to James, JJ sat in between Vera and Peppermint, and directly across from Peppermint sat Lena. Directly across from JJ sat Winn.

Kara made several large, tantalizing turkey legs, full of dark meat, and glazed to a golden brown. The meaty legs stood tall on the table, and it was enough meat for an army. She had both mesh potatoes and stuffing, corn, greens, pecan and pumpkin pies, and sweet potato casserole.

James looked directly at JJ, and asked, "What do you have to be thankful for?"

"I thank Peppermint every day," JJ said with a smile. "Twice this morning."

"I thanked JJ," Vera said. "I thanked him for being the best friend on the planet."

"I meant a higher power," James said with a raised voice.

"I thanked e=mc squared just yesterday," JJ said, "Could you imagine a universe without that?"

Winn started laughing.

"JJ!" Kara exclaimed. "Didn't I say don't start stuff?"

"Yes, ma'am," he said, "Sorry, Kara."

"Let's just say a prayer to ourselves for a moment, and that'll be that," she said.

Everybody except for Winn, Vera, Peppermint, and JJ bowed their heads. When they finished with the prayer, Lena grabbed the first turkey leg and looked at it for a moment. "Nothing like being stuffed by eight inches of brown, succulent meat."

Peppermint grabbed a turkey leg, and said, "Your measurement is off. It's nine inches, and it always aims to please."

Vera grabbed a turkey leg, and held it up to the light for a moment, and said, "That's about nine inches. It's going to take all my strength to wrestle all this meat down my throat."

"You don't have to eat all at once," James said. "You can always take some home."

"That's true," Vera said with a smile.

"Not me," Lena said, "I want it all, and I want it all now."

When JJ looked down at Kara, she had her head on the table, and then said, "Heaven help us."

Winn and Alex were busy eating and not pay any attention to the war between Lena and Peppermint. Lena tore into her turkey leg while looking directly at JJ, and then Peppermint ripped into her leg. "Looks like it's too much for you, Lena."

"Oh! I'm just getting started, little girl. It's my first nine-incher, but I've had plenty of sixers."

"For a lady with such wealth, you settle for small things," Peppermint said laughingly. "Don't ever touch my man again or I'll show you what I can do."

"is that a threat?" Lena asked.

"You bet your life it is," Peppermint said as she stood up. "What kind of curator would wear an ancient talisman in the first place? What you did is the epitome of selfishness."

"Peppermint, please," JJ said. He held her hand, and said, "Sit down, honey."

She turned to Kara, and said, "We asked you to fix this business, Kara. Why didn't you take JJ seriously when he told you what it could do? This has cut me deeply."

"I didn't know," she said. "How was I supposed to know the Vulcan is Ptah?"

"Damn," James said. "I thought it was you guys in that ancient painting."

"You better hope JJ can figure this shit out because the insatiable lust in your heart will drive you mad," Peppermint said. "I hope you've learned a lesson about messing with things you don't understand." She sat back down and began crying. JJ picked her up from the table and took her over to the couch.

"Wait? We've been talking about JJ's man-business this whole time?" Vera asked. She looked at her turkey leg, smirked, and said, "E=mc squared for real!"

Later on…

Peppermint, JJ, Alex, Kara, and Vera quickly cleaned up Kara's apartment, and she pulled JJ off to the side for a moment. "I didn't mean to dismiss your concerns about the necklace," she said with a sorrowful look. "But Lena left angry, hurt, and bitter."

"Orion, what happens if we can't undo the harmful effects of the necklace?" JJ asked.

The small disc appeared out of nowhere, and then said, "The person who wore the necklace will eventually be consumed with apathy and madness. They'll almost seem inhuman."

"Thank you, Orion," JJ said. He turned to Kara, and said, "Imagine somebody of her wealth and intelligence making decisions with apathy, without concern for life, and without any remorse?"

"There's no way it can be that bad," she said, "It's just an ancient artifact."

Orion laughed. "Kara, you do understand two people absolutely nothing in common hooked up in your living room?" She asked.

"Yes," she said, "I can't get the image out of my mind."

Alex came around the corner, and asked, "What are you two, knuckleheads, yapping about over there?"

"Work," she said.

"Well, we're all cleaned up," she said. "I'm jumping ship." She grabbed her jacket, and left out of the apartment building, and then JJ looked at his watch.

"I have to head out, Kara," he said with a grimace. "I'm eating with Peppermint's parents, and then I'm making plans to travel to the United States of Africa."

"We don't have clearance for that," she said.

"J'onn and his father are taking a religious sabbatical in Tibet, but you can get Alex to give me the credentials," he said. "It's either that or I'll have Orion produce the paperwork for me."

She looked up at him and then sighed.

"It's for your friend Lena," JJ said with a grimace. "I could look the other way, but then that wouldn't be congruent with what my mentor taught me."

"You're a cold kid, JJ," she said with a grimace. 'You're going to guilt trip me into letting you do this?"

"Because you're not seeing the bigger picture," he said, "Peppermint and I are free from the necklace, but not Lena. Yeah. It was stupid for her to wear an ancient artifact, but she doesn't deserve to go insane over it."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

JJ, Peppermint, and Vera sat in Peppermint's parents living room and had their shoes over at the door. He lay on the ground with his feet on the couch and read some notes on the necklace that Orion printed off for him.

The aroma of fried turkey rice and kimchi permeated throughout the entire apartment, and since JJ was a small boy, he developed an affinity for it. He ate kimchi just as much as Peppermint, and on some levels, maybe more. Mrs. Lee fixed the table, and Mister Lee sat in his Easy Chair reading a newspaper.

JJ was visibly upset over how Ptah treated his subjects throughout the years. At one moment in time, he treated humanity like his pets, and then he treated humanity with contempt when they sided with Cronus-Zeus in the War of The Dead, and for four thousand years, he beat humanity into submission with his Draconian rules. It wasn't until a covenant of witches called Ptah's Covenant built a glove to fight against their Lord's powers, and he killed seventeen GOD Glove warriors before he stole the glove, and buried it in Western Africa.

"Oh, Peppermint," JJ said, "Ptah was an evil being five hundred thousand years ago."

"Everybody was evil when looking at them through a parochial lense."

He looked over at her as she played UNO with Vera, and thought about what she said made a lot of sense.

"So, have y'all been studying for the state examinations?" Mister Lee asked. He placed the newspaper in his lap, and JJ knew he would niggle him until his nose bled.

"Of course," he said. "One of us three will score the highest in the state."

"That's a bold statement," Mister Lee said.

"It's true," Vera said as she slammed down the second to the last card, and screamed, "UNO." JJ looked over at her and then went back to reading his notes.

"Here's some Southwestern Rolls," Mrs. Lee said as she placed a boatload of fried rolls on the coffee table. They were all brown, stacked high, and tasty. JJ grabbed one and began eating it. He sat upright with his back against the couch. Peppermint grabbed a roll, and then climbed over JJ, sat down, and placed her legs on his shoulders.

Vera placed the cards on the table, grabbed a roll, and then bit into it. "Wow! This is really good."

"Mrs. Lee, are these homemade?" JJ asked.

"Of course," she said. "You know I make these homemade every year."

Even though he knew she made them homemade, he wanted to brighten up the atmosphere by chatting and avoiding any discussion about Peppermint's stomach. Over the last few days, Mister Lee kept asking how he planned on handling all the medical bills. He told him he had the money to handle his business.

"So, JJ, how are you going to pay for this baby?" Mister Lee asked.

"It's funny how a thousand dollars mysteriously ending up in your bank account doesn't have you looking across the hallway," JJ said.

"Let's not talk money today," Mrs. Lee said.

"Are you telling me you've been the gift from God?" Mister Lee asked bitterly.

"I can promise you I never said it came from God," he said with a grimace. "And if you think I said anything I've done to ensure your family stayed afloat came from a god, then I've obviously gone about my generosity the wrong way."

Mister Lee slammed his feet on the ground and looked at his wife. "Did you know about this?"

An eerie quietness came over the entire room, and Mrs. Lee had her hands behind her back. She walked into the living room from the dining room, "Damn you, JJ!"

"I've never once made a big deal out of this," JJ said, "But I won't be pushed around by anybody over Peppermint's pregnancy." He pointed to Mister Lee, and then said, "Every time I come over here you're making us feel bad, and I'm tired of it. Whenever I've had the money, I've given it freely. When was the last time you've spent money on Peppermint's clothes? When have you paid for her school supplies?" JJ paused for a moment, and then said, "I've been doing all that, and never once have I made an issue out of what I do."

Peppermint quickly ran over to JJ and hugged him tightly.

"She's our daughter," Mister Lee said.

"She'll still be your daughter," JJ said, "But at least you can give me some damn credit for taking care of business."

"How could you not tell me about his?" Mister Lee said to his wife.

"I prayed for money to pay the bills, and it would appear in the bank account," she said. "I thought it was God until JJ told me."

"I'm embarrassed by this," he said. "I don't even want to eat now."

"I don't know why," JJ said, "You've always told us to be better than you. We're doing our damnedest to be the best we can, and now you're talking about you're embarrassed. You should be rejoicing instead of seething over the fact that we're replacing you."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Next day: 0600

JJ sat on the Fifth Floor of the DEO and Nia had a map of the United States of Africa on the screen. Nia looked like a human being but was actually a living machine. She was born of a race, a race of machines created by Ptah nearly a million years earlier. He created a species of robotic lifeforms to help him maintain the universe in the early days. When Nia assumed the form of Peppermint to trick JJ so Ganthet could kidnap the real Peppermint and Supergirl, he forgave her and asked her to stay on Earth until he became of age. Hank hired her and now she was an agent for the DEO.

Often, JJ used Nia's abilities to help him predict outcomes of dangerous missions, and when it came to him returning to the Celestial Kingdom without all his abilities, he needed to know the possibility of success. The Celestial Kingdom was an oddity when compared to other paradises throughout the universe because it had the ability to create its own reality outside the current one. JJ didn't have any understanding of or association with the Celestial Kingdom because he didn't have any memory of it.

Orion flew into the room and placed a digital map of the Congo on the screen; it was basically a laser projector that shot out of her video port. She placed a red dot exactly where the entrance to the Celestial Kingdom stood, and then another red dot to where the ancient, Dawdians lived. "The Neuronet resides in the Celestial Kingdom," Orion said, "The Dawdians reside between Moxia and Brion Noir on a small planet about twice the size of Earth. There's an entrance to the Dawdians world located about thirty miles from the entrance to the Celestial Kingdom."

"Orion, when was the last time you entered the Celestial Kingdom?" JJ asked.

"After the passing of Ptah, Princess Kova La placed the kingdom in an alternate reality to protect it from the Great Father," Orion said, "I left the kingdom nearly one hundred thousand years ago when your god-spark left its container. The gods normally only take a two thousand year respite from life when they're killed. It takes that long for them to regenerate."

JJ walked around the room with his hands behind his back for a minute. He looked over at Orion, and then asked, "Where did I go?"

For a moment, the room quieted, and then Orion said, "The Doraxians weren't operating at their full potential. They lagged behind the Neonodes in math and science. They were a superstitious people back in those days. We had discussed them for thousands of years before you left the natural plane and their lack of willpower disturbed you."

"So?" JJ asked with a baffled look on his face.

"So, you created a race of Doraxians called the Grays that ruled over the Blues with an iron fist. For three hundred years, you called yourself Dava T'Naga. The Doraxians called you the devil."

The young hero laughed for a minute, and then asked, "Can I create life? This is utter madness."

Orion flew by his head, and then said, "You used science to design the Grays from the Blues. You created one male Gray who procreated with two hundred Gidisons that created the race of Grays. It took nearly four thousand years to turn those two hundred Grays into forty million."

"Have the Grays learned to treat the Blues equally?" JJ asked as he sat down across from Nia.

"I'll answer this," Nia said, "No. The Grays died out from a deadly plague initiated by E'Da T'Naga. He was a young scientist, a Blue, who invented a fleet of battleships like no other. When they won the Great War against a superior alien race with those ships, the Grays still wouldn't see the Blues as their equals. When E'Da turned one hundred years of age, he revealed to his wife that he wasn't of their world. When he came into his powers, he revealed he was Luciferous, son of Ptah. He, then, returned to the Grays and gave them a weapon that would eliminate the Blues. He said, 'The day you push the red button the Blues will all die.' Within hours of him giving the weapon to the highest ranking Grays on Doraxia, they had already pushed the button. But Luciferous lied. The Blues didn't die off; the Grays did."

"I see why Perilous hates me so," he said calmly. "It appears that my family and I have committed atrocities throughout the universe." Suddenly, an unexpected calmness came over the room because nobody tried to comfort him. He looked over at Orion for a moment as she hovered in the corner.

"What?" Orion asked.

"You're not going to tell me that isn't true?" He asked with a grimace.

"Then I'll be lying. No, JJ. You and your family including me and Veo have committed atrocities throughout the universe, but it was the best decision at the time."

Orion flew directly in front of the young man, and then he said, "It seems that I won't even be JJ when my memories return. I'll be a monster."

"Not only will you be JJ, but you'll be much more. You'll be a god," she said, "You'll be Ptah."

"Of course," Nia said, "You're Ptah at the end of the day anyway, but you'll have your ancient memories restored by the Neuronet so you'll be better prepared for the future."

Alex entered the room with a small device and plugged it in the console that set by JJ's desk. "Take a look at this?" She asked as she put the image on the screen. It was a large alien vessel on the far side of the moon. "This damn ship might have been there for thousands of years. We thought it was an asteroid at first." She zoomed in on the ship until it came into focus. "It looks dormant."

"It must've come uncloaked," Orion said, "That's the Great Father's vessel."

"The one Ptah damaged in the Great War nearly a million years ago?" Nia asked.

"The one and the same," Orion said, "He might be using the ship to help him locate the GOD Glove."

"GOD Glove?" Alex asked with a befuddled look on her face.

"It's a god killer," Orion said, "The Great Father gave it to the Dawdians to kill Ptah about three hundred thousand years ago. In those days, Ptah loved his people but they didn't love him."

"What happened?" JJ asked.

"He treated them like his toys and sex slaves, and when he grew tired of them, he discarded them like trash," Nia said.

"What?" JJ said.

"It's true," Orion said, "The Dawdians rose up against Ptah using black magic and ancient laser rifles. He laughed in the face of their weapons until the Great Father intervened on behalf of the Dawdians. He created the Glove of Darkness so they could force you to bend to their will."

"Did it work?" He asked.

"At first, you appeared to give in to their wishes for nearly ten thousand years," Orion said, "You were peaceful and pleasant. And then one day, you started killing the chosen clan, the wielders of the glove. Everywhere they slept you killed them until you came across a warrior princess named Sekhmet. You looked her in her brown eyes as she stabbed you in the heart with her golden dagger dipped in Ambrosia. At the same time, you were making a telepathic link into her mind, and when the knife pierced your heart, you destroyed her brain."

"This really happened?" Alex asked.

"Yeah," Orion said, "Ptah fell to his knees next to Sekhmet's dying body. As his ethereal blood exited the wound in his chest, it pushed the Ambrosia out and healed on its own. Ptah looked over at me and said, 'Copy your mind into her mind.' I looked at him for a moment and said, 'No.' I didn't usually refuse his orders, but I begged him never to put my mind into other beings. 'Please, Orion? I'll make her into a god!' He said. I had never known him to lie, so I did it. I copied my mind into hers, and then she went through an apotheosis and sat by his side in the Celestial Kingdom for nearly two hundred thousand years."

"I see," JJ said, "It was during this time the Dawdians made the talisman to take me down." He placed his hands on his head and then walked over to the far end of the room. "I don't like this Ptah guy."

Orion scoffed. "You better like him. He's you and there isn't anything you can do about it," she snapped, "You're just a sixteen-year-old kid, but you'll come to the understanding of what you have to do."

JJ looked over at her for a moment as she hovered near Alex. He then looked at Nia and said, "This Ptah seemed so scurrilous and uncaring about the Dawdians. I see why they wanted him dead."

"The children always want to take the place of the father," Orion said, "The same way you stole your father's wife and destroyed our original universe in the process."

"Wait? What?" He asked with a befuddled look on his face.

"Yes, JJ," Nia said, "For a million years Ptah had carnal relations with his mother."

The news of hearing about his past relationship with the Great Mother caused him to hyperventilate. Alex quickly ran over to him and said, "Breath, JJ. It's okay."

"But it isn't okay, Alex," he said, "I'm supposed to be this god who's reckless and a sexual deviant. How can I look at myself in the mirror knowing this madness? How can Kara ever respect me? How can Peppermint ever love me?"

"Perhaps I've told you too much, JJ, but you've already repeated this timeline on two other occasions," Orion said, "The first time you grew old and gray. You wanted to see how humanity reacted to threats from beyond the stars and they failed. The second time you watched from afar to see how humanity would do if they took to the stars and they caused an intergalactic war. Now, you're allowing time to move accordingly because you've decided humanity is a plague on the verse. So, in sixty-something years, you'll unleash the Destroyer on this world and he'll eradicate the dead branches and the vestiges that's left will start anew. It is the way of things. It's the way of the gods."

"So humanity is doomed?" Alex asked with a grimace.

"Yes," Orion said, "It has already started. More and more people are starting to die and aren't being replaced. Soon, towns will start to die all across the world and won't be replenished."

"Is there any hope?" JJ asked, "It seems I've already set things into play."

Orion laughed. "There's always hope, JJ," she said, "Maybe this time humanity will see the light and change their hateful and bigoted ways to sit at the table with the rest of the galaxy. It'll take more than a little serendipity."

"Meantime, you'll have to go to the Dawdians for the cure for Lena Luthor," Alex said, "She controls too many high powered, military weapon systems to be unstable. She appears to be testing a robotic suit that shoots a weaponized, kryptonite laser beam. It could kill a Kryptonian with one, solid laser strike. When anybody of her money and power loses their mind, it can be catastrophic."

Batcave…

The Vulcan flew down into the Batcave while Bruce Wayne worked on his bat suit, an armored machine with a smart computer onboard. Mister Wayne wore a black, form-fitting suit that was supposed to allow him to have a better interface with the machine. The suit lay on the table in the supine position, and as soon as the young man approached it, he began scanning the silver suit's power structure. He knew at some point Mister Wayne would paint the suit black to go with his style, but according to what JJ knew, it was a brand new suit. "This damn thing will still overload your heart."

"I know," he said as he placed down his wrench. "For some reason, I can't find the right frequency to interact with my body chemistry." He placed his right hand over his chest and then said, "I've re-damaged my heart already."

JJ walked over to the steps that lead up to the Batcomputer and sat down with his elbows on his knees. He looked at the old man as he lumbered around the room adjusting the electrical output on his suit. "I don't think it's a good idea to wear the suit."

"I also don't recall asking you, JJ," Mister Wayne said with a salty attitude. "This is my baby and I have to get her right."

"Every time you wear that damn suit, you bring yourself closer to death," JJ said, "What good is it to repair your heart for a second time just to mess it up again?"

The old man grunted for a second. He placed his hands on the suit's chest, and then said, "I didn't ask you to fix me the first time."

"I didn't need you to ask me," JJ said, "I did what I thought I had to do."

"What does it matter?" Mister Wayne asked, "What does it matter if the human race is dying anyway?"

"Because the future is still undetermined," he said with a grimace, "I didn't realize that until Orion and I had an intimate discussion about my identity." He paused for a moment and then said, "The world is an extremely violent place right now. We have outbreaks of unrest all over the globe. We have the opportunity to bring these conflicts to a close."

"Human beings don't change that quickly," he said calmly, "We can put the Justice Corp back into place but what good would it do?"

"The Justice Corp can be a beacon of light to the rest of the world and then the entire universe," JJ said, "Humans just have to realize they aren't the center of the universe but can play a crucial part in its betterment."

Suddenly, an alert came across the Bat Computer. "Warning! An attack is taking place on the DEO in National City."

JJ tapped on his communicator and Supergirl answered it. "We need you, JJ. We're fighting three individuals in the red raider uniform."

"You better watch out," JJ said, "The Red Raiders have weaponized, Kryptonite lasers."

"Just get here," she said, "Supergirl out."

DEO…

When the Vulcan came up on the macabre scene, he saw bodies strewn about all over the area. Several of the floors on the building burned and he could hear the ambers popping underneath him. With the wave of his right hand, he sucked the oxygen out of the top floors and it extinguished the fire. The use of his powers in that manner drained his strength for a short period in time, and then he fell to the ground and rolled over on his back.

Looking up into the sky, he saw the Red Raider fire a green beam into Supergirl's chest, and then she fell on top of the DEO building. When he saw Kara tumble to the roof of the building, he immediately took flight, but the Red Raider already jettisoned across the blue sky.

He looked around for a moment when he heard something cutting through the air. The rays from the sun rejuvenated him and he felt stronger than before he fell to the ground. But when he looked up, he saw a flying disc cutting through the air that struck him in the chest. The flying weapon must have weighed about a ton and it knocked him clear across the bright, blue sky. "What the hell was that?" He screamed. It took him about a minute to shake off the pain, and then when he tried to fly back to his position, one of the Red Raiders struck him in the chin. It caused him to flip through the air, but he quickly found his composure.

The Red Raiders' helmet dissolved in front of the Vulcan's face, and the person underneath the mask was Lena Luthor. Her blue eyes were filled with tears and anger, and right before he could say a word, she said, "All you had to do was reciprocate my love!"

He watched her every move as she hovered above the earth in her red and black suit of destruction. When he analyzed the weapon system on her uniform, he could see the kryptonite based weapon system and it had some green residue around the nozzle. "I swear to all that is good I'll kill you if you hurt Supergirl?"

"It's funny how she's the first person on your mind," she said with a grimace. "How long have you been fucking her, Vulcan?"

He paused for a moment, and then asked, "Why would you say something like that, Lena? You're so crude. You disgust me."

She began to seethe and huff loudly, and then screamed, "I have every right to be rude and disgusting, you piece of shit. You broke my heart, JJ!" When she called out his name, he realized he hadn't done a good job with keeping his identity safe. But then she said, "I should've known Kara was Supergirl in the very beginning. Why else would she be hanging out with you, a god?"

"What do you mean?" He asked, "What makes you think Kara is Supergirl?"

She laughed, "Cause right before I killed her, she told me." Suddenly, a stream of fire shot out of the Vulcan's right fist and burned Lena's face. Quickly, he realized the power drain he experienced earlier was actually a growth spurt. The new energy flowed through his veins and he was ready to tear Lena into pieces. When the powerful beam hit Lena, she flew backward and screamed loudly. When he egressed from his position to her location, she flew off, back toward her home in Metropolis. At first, he wanted to follow her but then he received a radio call from James. He didn't quite know what the Guardian was going to say, but he wasn't prepared for what he heard.

"JJ, get back to the DEO. It's Supergirl," he said in a somber voice.

"What's wrong with her?" He asked immediately.

"She's gone, bro. She's dead," he said in a brittle voice.

The young Vulcan screamed so loudly that his voice shook National City. In an instant, JJ stood by Kara's body as he looked at her wounds closely. He didn't even realize that he opened up a portal and stepped through it like the Ptah of old. He looked her over for a moment and began to sob for his mentor. She had one laser burn near her right temple, and from what he could tell, it could have been the fatal shot. When James walked into the room, JJ screamed, "Get out! Let me fix this."

"She's gone, man," James said, "You don't think we're all hurting."

"Leave, Olsen!" He exclaimed, "Let me do what I do? Okay?" He stood by her body with tears streaming down his face and slobbering. "Where're are you, Orion? Damn!" He picked up Supergirl's dead body and headed out of the DEO with it.

"Where are you taking my sister?" Alex screamed.

"Let me do what I do, Alex!" He exclaimed. He stood in front of the DEO with Kara's body and then took off at nearly light speed. In a matter of half a second, he was in his apartment when Peppermint and Vera ran into the front room.

"What's going on?" Peppermint asked.

"It's Kara. She's dead," he said, "Lena did this. I need the machine to heal her."

"I got it right here," Vera said as she placed the device on Kara's stomach. "I'm adjusting the setting to Kryptonian physiology right now."

"She's been shot several times with that deadly kryptonite ray," he said, "She had more than a lethal dosage of radiation."

"It's unfortunate," Peppermint said, "You should've let me kill that privilege bitch on Thanksgiving. It would've alleviated a lot of heartaches."

"Amen to that," Vera said, "Now, step back and let the machine do its job."

"Narcotizing the patient," the computer said as it started working its magic on Kara. It took about forty-five minutes before JJ saw any signs of life in her. The machine hummed for so long that he had to walk around the living room and then into his back bedroom to try to de-stress.

"What's wrong?" Peppermint asked calmly.

"I have to travel to Africa tomorrow," he said with a grimace. "If I don't get the cure from the Dawdians, we'll have to repeat this process. It's taking so long for the machine to work on her."

"Guys, I'm attaching the logical brain piece right now!" Vera screamed. When the couple walked back into the living room, Kara lay on the ground looking up at the ceiling.

"Did anybody get a picture of that bus that hit me?" Kara asked as she lay in the supine position. "My head is killing me."

"It's a result of restoring your logical brain," JJ said calmly. "Kara, we're fighting against people with Kryptonite base weapons. It is what it is."

"I know," she said, "But it doesn't negate what needs to be done."

"All I'm saying is you need some armament for such an occasion," he said, "Or we'll be repeating this." He helped her off the ground and she wiped off her uniform.

"I'm heading back to the DEO right now, but we have to stop Lean before she strikes again," she said, "What time are you leaving tomorrow?"

"First thing," he said, "I have to meet with Captain Hall and he'll guide me on this trip."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

It took JJ approximately thirty minutes to fly into West Africa, over the state of Senegal to a city called Niaga. The temperature was nearly eighty degrees according to his sensitive instruments. The sight of the banana trees that surrounded the area shocked him. In all his days, he had never seen an actual banana tree, and now he saw rows of them. He didn't want to fly into the state without Messiah because it had special instruments that could analyze the atmosphere, metals, and just about anything he needed. He flew directly over a military base, and Orion put Messiah into invisibility mode so his ship wouldn't attract unwanted attention. Once he landed the craft, he exited it, and then looked around the invisible ship for a moment.

On his right wrist, he wore a communicator that resembled a watch, and he had Orion in the backpack he carried on his back. He tapped a button and a holographic keyboard appeared, and then he sent a message directly to Peppermint. He told her that he'd message her as soon as he touched down at Fort Harriet Tubman.

Text Message:

JJ: I made it safely.

Peppermint: Okay. Your son is kicking the shit out of me.

JJ: It's because I'm not there.

Peppermint: Lol. Okay. See you when you get home. Love you.

JJ: Love you too.

End of Text Message

The base was called Fort Harriet Tubman and set on the outskirts of Niaga. The founders of the state were descendants of American slaves. Marcus Garvey wrote the nation's constitution while he was in prison. He looked at the hut-like houses that circled the area with amazement. On one hand, he felt ashamed that he didn't know much about the people of western Africa, but on the other hand, he was glad to have visited such a beautiful place. The quaint, little houses appeared to be mud huts, but made with brick, round and with straw like roofs. He hadn't ever seen the design except in the National Geographic magazines. To the south, in the city area, skyscrapers lined the horizon, and women moved about outside the compound with baskets on their heads.

He took flight under his own volition and without a ship, circled the compound, and then landed in the middle of the base near some fortified, two-story barracks. He wore his form-fitting, black military style uniform that Rachel Ballard made for him. A tall, tenebrous soldier stood near the brigade headquarters, about twenty-five feet from the American flag. It was Captain Hall. His hairstyle, the large fro, wasn't military regulation, but since he was special operations, JJ didn't say anything. He wore a green beret hat, and his chiseled jaw made him look hard. His shoulders and chest were wide. The look in his eyes was cold and harsh.

"Captain Hall, I'm the Vulcan," he said as he extended his gloved hand.

"I'm not too familiar with you," he said with a grimace. "But I have my orders to work with you." He paused for a moment, and then said, "It's not like you're one of the real superheroes."

"Do you know the mission?" The Vulcan asked calmly. He looked directly at the soldier and tried to remain calm in spite of the disrespect he displayed.

"Some nonsense about Ptah's People," he said with a scowl on his face. He walked directly in front of the Vulcan, and then said, "Nothing but more voodoo bullshit. I can't believe the DEO directed us to follow you."

"Believe it," The Vulcan said with a stern look. He didn't care for Captain Hall's disposition. "The civilization is called Ptah's Covenant," he said.

The Captain laughed, and then said, "Just another fictional place."

The Vulcan turned to him immediately, and said, "You keep that condescending tone to yourself, Captain Hall. I'm not here over fiction."

"I think It's bullshit that I have to answer to a masked super kid," he said. "What gives you the right to give me orders? I've been contracted with the DEO and Cadmus for five years, and I feel disrespected."

"I've only had six months of intense, military training, but at least I know how to respect my fellow man," he said, "I expect you to use your military bearing with me, Captain. I will only give lawful orders, and I expect you and your men to carry them out."

"So, what's your freaking rank?" He asked.

"That's classified," he said in a calm voice. "I read your dossier. You have a daughter named Jessica, right?"

"Yes," he said, "She's three." Immediately, Orion entered into his mind through telepathic communication.

"That's Radiant Wasp," Orion said telepathically. "She's a great asset to the future."

Moments later...

The Vulcan looked over the sophisticated, military uniforms that had the same technology as GK's suit. He was impressed by the maneuverability of the bodysuits, and they increased the user's strength in incredible ways. All of them were green like the vegetation. The sophisticated masks tapped into the Cadmus satellites. "Have you been warned of the vulnerabilities of the suits?"

"What do you mean?" He asked with a grimace.

"The energy module weakens the heart after prolonged usage," he said calmly. "I've consulted Wayne Technologies about a new apparatus that doesn't put a strain on the heart."

He shrugged his shoulders, and then asked, "How do you know all this stuff?"

"I'm a bit of a tech geek," he said. "It's kind of my thing."

A few moments later...

He had four soldiers on his team with Captain Hall being their leader. The next in charge was Lt. Rice, a short, stocky Caucasian with reddish hair. He had a bit of a southern accent. "How old are you?" Rice asked the Vulcan. When the young superhero looked down at his boots, he saw the blades in them. He looked over at his hands, and his knuckles were bruised.

"Sixteen," he said.

"You're fucking kidding me?" He said.

"No. I'm not," he said, "But I promise you I'm trained to lead." He walked over to the table with all the equipment on it, and said, "I read your dossier, Lt. Rice. Your wife is currently dying from stage four breast cancer. You're doing this little mission so your wife can have the medical treatment she needs," the Vulcan said.

"That's right," he said.

"You have two kids. Eric is four and Nikki is two," the Vulcan said, "They're in good health."

The next soldier was a thirty-something Jamaican woman named Harriet Webb, and she didn't smile at all. She was built like a linebacker. "Will we be killing anybody on this mission?"

"Of course if the situation requires us to use deadly force, we'll use the amount of force needed to stop the threat," the Vulcan said. He looked around at the small group of soldiers, and said, "What I'm about to tell you is classified." He looked over at Captain Hall, and said, "Everybody have a seat."

"Okay," the Captain said as he sat down at the table.

"I want everybody to pull out your personal computers. Do an internet search on Vulcan, the god. I want you to look at his Egyptian name."

"It's Ptah," Captain Hall said with a grimace. "So, what are you?"

"I am Ptah," he said. "An ancient curse was placed on a charm that a very very wealthy woman decided to wear around her neck. It caused us to fall madly in love, but Supergirl snatched the necklace from the woman's neck. It broke the spell and freed me from the woman's grasp. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about her. When Supergirl snapped the necklace, she essentially created a monster out of an extremely powerful woman who has the ability to change the world. The witches who created the charm did so as a weapon against me."

"So, how old are you?" Captain Hall asked.

"I'm sixteen," he said, "But the god spark inside of me is over five million years old."

"Why do you need us?" Rice asked.

"To ensure we don't start an international incident," he said with a grimace. "One hundred thousand years ago the witches who called themselves the Deceivers had flying machines," he said, "I suspect their society is far beyond anything we can fathom. The Deceivers go by Dawdians or Deceivers. It depends on the sect."

"Who is this woman?" Captain Hall asked.

"The daughter of the bitch who pays you," he said, "I work for Amanda Waller, and that's the head of Cadmus."

"Lena Luthor?" He asked. "You're making this mission harder by the second."

"Captain Hall, you're with me on this for a reason," he said, "Nearly five hundred thousand years ago, Ptah's Covenant rose up against me, and Cronus Zeus made them a powerful weapon that's attached to a family's genetic code."

"Wait? What?" He asked.

"I believe the weapon is buried deep in the Congo. It's a glove that fits over your right hand, and it holds great power. It has the history of the universe locked inside of it. It gives the wearer great powers, and the ability to fight super beings. You're the only person who can wear this glove. It's called the Glove of Darkness," he said, "A weapon designed for your ancestors."

"These witches are my ancestors?" He asked. He shook his head as if he didn't believe.

"No. They protect the glove for your family line until another one of your kin claims it," he said. "When we're in the thick of the jungle, you'll call out to the glove, and hopefully it will find you."

The last soldier was Sergeant First Class Kevin Williams, a thin black soldier with the agility like a metahuman according to his chart. He fought with great speed, strength, and agility according to his records. When he looked at his dossier, he thought Cadmus imbued him with the Super Soldier Formula.

"We're going deep into the Congo," the Vulcan stated to the group of men and one woman who would accompany him. "I've looked at your dossiers, and I know your skill levels. Be careful. Be on guard. Only use the amount of force needed to accomplish the mission."

Congo…

When the Vulcan landed in the middle of the rainforest, the loud animal noises caught him off guard. He heard so many different animals that he couldn't match all the sounds to the animals. There was so much vegetation on top of vegetation that he didn't know where to begin. When he tried to look through the trees without tapping into his powers, he could barely see because of all the trees. When he bent down for a moment, a large snake came up through the brush and bit the Vulcan on the arm. The snake struck him so fast that it caught him completely off guard. The sting was minimal, but two electrical bolts of lightning came from his eyes and fried it.

"Are you injured?" Captain Hall asked.

"Not at all," he said with a grimace. "It's unfortunate about the snake though." He looked around the area for a moment. "Give me a three sixty perimeter," The Vulcan said as he knelt down to the ground. He placed his right gloved hand on the ground, put his electrical energy into it, and it seeped deep into the earth. Suddenly, several bonobos swung across several trees, and he almost released a spiderweb of lightning strikes on them until he realized they were virtually harmless.

"Orion, are you detecting anything?" The Vulcan asked.

"No, sir," she said, "We're approximately three miles from the entrance to the Celestial Kingdom."

"Lead us," he said. All of them followed Orion and landed in the area that she had pinpointed on the map. When they started their descent, he saw a flash out of his peripheral vision. "Did you detect that light, Orion?"

"Stop!" Orion exclaimed. "It's here."

The Vulcan looked at the ground for a moment, and then said, "It's on a different frequency than us." He looked around at his soldiers and then said, "I'm going to encompass us in an electromagnetic field and match the frequency of the field. This should allow us to enter into this ethereal world." He reached out his hands, and the electromagnetic field covered all the soldiers; it allowed them to pass through the field, and it was a world of advanced technology. It was a vast world that was an entryway into another dimension. Once they went through the gateway, they entered into a world with three moons, two red suns, and flying automobiles.

The flying cars traveled horizontally across the sky and moved at a reasonable speed. There were tall buildings all over the place and a lot of lights. It was unlike anything he had ever seen. There were several massive ships that flew above the planet. The clouds looked reddish orange, and the entire world had the same tint to it.

By the time they descended to the planet, a team of guards in enhanced body suits flew up to them. They looked like robots, but he could sense an intelligence underneath the helmet. As soon as the Vulcan tried to speak, one of the guards shot him with a powerful laser, but it didn't do much to him. An electromagnetic field encompassed his body, and he blocked the laser. Suddenly, a lightning bolt hit the soldier, and he fell towards the ground. Right before he hit the surface, the Vulcan caught him in an electromagnetic field.

When the guards saw what he did, they absconded from him, and he chased them down with his super speed. They didn't have an opportunity to run, and he caught them in a spiderweb of electricity. With one electromagnetic blanket, he took all the guards out of the sky.

Out of nowhere, an armored warrior struck him with an uppercut to the chin and he flew up to the top portion of the dome. He hadn't ever been hit that hard since Kara smacked him during a training session when he called her grandma. When he found his bearing, he flew back down to the armored warrior and punched it in the face. The golden suit unraveled from around the soldier and then reappeared. It was a woman on the inside of the metal machine.

She flew around the group of soldiers, and Captain Hall launched a missile out of his right fist, but the Vulcan stopped it with an electrical bolt. When the missile took off, he felt a great pain in his heart. He went into the armored soldier's mind, and he felt something akin to a family from it.

He flew up to the soldier, clamped onto her back, and ripped off her helmet. "I know you."

"Get off me," she said struggling.

"Why does my heart care about you?" He asked. "Were you a wife in a past life?"

"Father! Let me go," she said.

"Why did you call me that?" He asked.

"I'm Princess Kova La," she said with a scowl on her face. "I've waited nearly one hundred thousand years for you to return."

"I'm Ptah," he said as he looked at the young, tenebrous lady in front of him. "You look so young."

"We're gods," she said. "We don't age." She flew around him for a moment, and asked, "Remove your mask."

He turned to Captain Hall, and an electromagnetic field encompassed his team. He pushed them out of the dome, and back into the Congo. "Stay there. I will be here for awhile." He turned to Princess Kova La and took off his mask.

"Oh father," she said as she touched his face. She gently turned his head to the right and then to the left. They continued to hover above the planet. "It is you, father, but you're only a child."

"Yes," he said with a smile. "I'm only sixteen." He hugged her for a moment. "My Peppermint is Sekhmet La," he said with a smile. "We've consummated and she's pregnant."

"Can you bring her here?" She asked. "I miss Mama so much that life is painful without her."

"In time," he said, "But I must tell you why I'm here."

"Father, first, we need to go to our Kingdom hovering in the north, and restore your logical mind."

He looked at her for a moment, and asked, "You can give me back all the knowledge I've lost?"

"Yes," she said with a smile. "In time, around your twenty-first birthday, you'll go through an apotheosis, and remember everything. This will just speed it up. We also have your ring." They flew to the kingdom, and when JJ landed on the platform, another woman walked out to him.

"I hope I'm not dreaming," the woman said.

"Who are you?" The Vulcan asked.

"Princess Umbra La. Your daughter," she said.

He looked at her for a moment, and even though he didn't recognize her, he felt he knew her. They walked him into the royal library, and there were easily a million books throughout the gigantic room. Princess Kova La sat him down behind a large desk and placed the brain helmet on his head. She told him to count back from ten, and when he did, he was in a dream state. He almost felt inebriated with all the syrupy images of his past. It took nearly two days for all the images to download into his head.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"Oh, that little mutherfucker," Captain Danny Hall said with a disappointed scowl on his face. He looked back at LT. Andy Rice and shook his head in disbelief. Turning to the rest of his comrades he said in a bitter tone, "I can't even detect the anomaly at this point. There's nothing here. No dome. No nothing."

"Do we stay here and wait for the kid?" LT Andy Rice asked.

"Yeah," Captain Hall said with a turned down visage. "He's the leader on this mission." Looking down at the thick vegetation, they ascended into the trees. "We'll set up camp right here until the Vulcan returns."

"Shit! Do we get paid for doing absolutely nothing?" SGT Webb asked. "I need that dough."

"We better get paid," SFC Williams said. "I don't work for free."

"Shut that noise," Captain Hall said in anger. "You'll get your money. All of us will."

The ninety-degree temperature with the excessive humidity made it hard on the soldiers; it was like their equipment stuck to their skin and it was uncomfortable. They set up a small camp with their tents and sat around quietly waiting for the Vulcan to return, but the minutes turned into hours. The bonobos swung from the trees, watched the soldiers and ate the blueberries hidden in the tall vegetation, and Captain Hall watched them as they dallied about the area. He pulled some chewing tobacco out of his satchel, took a chew, and placed it in his mouth. The mint flavored tobacco relaxed him, made him feel good inside. He walked around the area and tried to discern if the area warranted an around the clock guard.

"Sergeant Williams, come with me," Captain Hall said with his hands on his hips. "We're going to do a quick investigation of the area for security purposes."

"Yes, sir," he said.

"When we flew into the area, I saw a small village. It's about one hundred klicks to the north," he said with a calm visage. He looked relaxed with the tobacco in his mouth and he spat a few times as he looked around the area. "I want to make sure they don't have anything to do with the amulet."

"You think that's the actual location?" Sergeant Williams asked. "What makes that place special?"

"Well, the soldier called the Vulcan father after he retaliated against her attack," he said with a serious countenance. "I believe the reborn god is home. But according to what I'm reading on the internet, the witches lived to the North of his empire."

"Maybe we should all go there," Lt. Rice said. "It'll put us all to work. This sitting around doing nothing is for the birds."

"No. You guys stay here," he said, "The kid's safety is paramount."

Ptah's Covenant (The Deceivers).

At first sight, the village appeared quite primitive: water well, out-houses, women walking around topless, and the men dressed in a loincloth. The huts appeared like normal mud-huts until he approached one. When he opened the door, several hi-tech, warrior soldiers on hoverboards stopped him in his tracks, and it freaked him out because they were covered in similar armor. In addition, most of the soldiers stood approximately six-foot-three-inches, about a couple of inches shorter than the Vulcan.

"What are you?" Captain Hall asked of the men in their armored suits.

"What we are isn't important. We're an ancient race called Ptah's Covenant. Some call us the Deceivers while others of the old world call us the Dawdians. Why are you Americans here?" The armored soldier asked. He was in an armored, bodysuit with his face completely covered.

"I thought Ptah's Covenant would be more advanced than this. You're an old people with technology before recorded time, but all you have to show for it is a bunch of old, dilapidated huts?" Captain Hall asked with a serious countenance.

"My name is Vic Na La," he said with a grimace. "This is Ptah's Covenant and what you see before you is a facade. You're not meant to see the riches of the world of the Deceivers."

He looked over at Sergeant Williams, and said, "Told you. These people are Ptah's progeny."

The armor around the soldier's head dissolved into the suite, and he was a tenebrous young man. "What do you want with us?"

"We're here about a powerful necklace that caused Ptah to fall madly in love with the person who wore it," he said, "Once the necklace was removed from the girl's neck, Ptah and his wife were okay, but the person who wore the necklace was still caught in its spell."

"Wait!?" Vic Na La said. "I remember stories of this necklace. It was an ancient necklace that freed my people from Ptah's grip. But for the necklace to work, Ptah would have to return to this plane. He's been missing for nearly two hundred thousand years now." He laughed for a moment, and then said, "You're kidding me. You Americans are so funny."

"Ptah's a sixteen-year-old kid, tall, and very powerful," Sergeant Williams said, "Kind of an asshole, though." He paused for a moment, and then said, "He also told me about a God Glove," he said, "A powerful weapon against the gods."

"You mean the Glove of Darkness?" Vic Na La asked. "It's an ancient weapon used to help save the human race against other world foes. When the ancient Dawdians broke away from Ptah, they used the glove to subdue him. This is the legend of the glove. It's said Ptah allowed the Dawdians to leave because they broke his heart when they attacked him with the glove created by his father, the Great Father."

"Yeah. He said it belonged to me now," he said.

Vic Na La looked at the soldier with apprehension for a moment, and then took a long rod that was attached to his belt and ran it over Captain Hall's body. "We thought Ptah killed your lineage," he said in amazement, "Today is a great day that there's a wielder of the glove." He then pressed a button on his wrist, and said, "I'm bringing the Elders to the surface because if you're the recipient of the glove, you must stay here for training."

"We could just go to your world," Captain Hall said, "Don't know why all the secrecy."

"There's an entire world under this mountain," he said, "Unbeknownst to human eyes, and it's forbidden to your kind unless you're the true owner of the glove. Our tech is beyond anything mankind can fathom, and our witchcraft was perfected by Ptah himself."

A group of armed men appeared out of nowhere, in front of them, and they had a massive amount of armament. A group of twelve, tenebrous men walked forward with a large, golden box, set it on the ground, and walked over to Captain Hall.

"I am Prince Tre La Ryan. Which one of the men claims he's of the warrior bloodline?" He asked.

"It's me," he said with a curious look on his face. "Ptah told me I was a descendant."

"Ptah? This means the god spark has found its host," he said. "Is the host a good man?"

"Indeed," he said, "He's back with his daughters. He's tall like a statue, but he's young. He's only sixteen, but strong."

"So, he's malleable?" He asked.

"Yes, sir," he said. "When he was in the forest, a snake bit him, and he accidentally killed it. He apologized to nature for it. He tries to help people."

The Elders clasped their hands together, and said, "We've prayed thousands and thousands of years over thousands of generations that the god spark would find a decent creature who has a love for nature. If he's only sixteen, he hasn't gone through his apotheosis. In five years, he will gain his full strength and knowledge of who he is?" He paused for a second, and asked, "Was his wife with him?"

"No! I don't think he's married," Captain Hall said.

Prince Tre La Ryan paused for a moment, and then said, "His true wife is a flying disc that he communicates with. It's a goddess and over five million years old. It has great powers like Ptah himself and would've of sought him out by now."

"Wait? You mean the flying computer is his wife?" He asked with a befuddled look on his face.

"Yes," he said, "She was flesh five million years ago. Are you a good man, Captain Hall?"

"I try to be," he said, "I'm a soldier by trade."

"Do you understand what the God glove is?" He asked. The entire entourage and complement of soldiers formed a circle around Captain Hall. "You need to leave, Sergeant Williams," The Elder said. "Don't take it personally, but we must discuss some things with your commander."

"Sir?" Sergeant Williams asked with a look of caution on his face. "We shouldn't separate."

"It's okay, Sergeant," Captain Hall said, "These people are good people."

One of the other Elders walked forward, and said, "Wait, Sergeant!"

Sergeant Williams stopped for a moment, and said, "Yes?"

"Do you have weapons?" He asked.

"Very powerful ones," Sergeant Williams said.

"There are great warriors from other worlds lurking in the woods," he said, "They will come after Ptah and the Glove. Be on guard at all time."

"Yes, sir," Sergeant Williams said. He pushed a button on his belt and then his suit powered up. At first, he hovered about twelve feet off the ground, and then e took off into the air and headed back to their campsite.

Prince Tre La Ryan looked up at the soldier, and said, "Once you read the words from the ancient text, the glove will be fitted to you until death. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir," he said.

"The glove will disappear when not needed, and reappear when needed," he explained. "But you must understand, the glove has its own conscience. It has its own set of values. If your mind isn't strong enough to wield the glove, it will control you instead of you controlling it." He clicked some buttons on his wrist, and then said, "I'm downloading some information into your suit's computer," he said, "It's instructions on what you must do if you can't handle the power of the glove."

"What is the purpose of the glove?" Captain Hall asked.

"To fight against powerful evils throughout the universe," Prince Tre La Ryan said, "You can take down governments with the glove, and even manipulate time. It's a weapon of immense power."

Suddenly, a roar that was so loud, so angry caused everybody to grab their ears. When Captain Hall looked up in the air, a crimson fire blanketed the skyline.

"We have no time for the ceremony," the Prince said. He grabbed the golden box, opened it, and then said, "Grab the glove. If you're not the one, it won't fit."

"Okay," he said. He stuck his right hand into the box and placed the glove on his right hand. He looked at it for a moment, and said, "I feel the energy."

Vic Na La ran up to Captain Hall, and said, "Have the young, infected woman drink this potion. It will reverse the effects of the crystal." Quickly, he put the potion in a small satchel on his belt.

All the soldiers in armor flew into the sky and intercepted the spacecraft. Smaller ships exited out of the back of the larger vessel and used powerful lasers against their armor. Captain Hall moved in tactically with the other soldiers, but when one of the people from Ptah's Covenant fired on the ship, it was like nothing he had ever seen in his life. The laser blast caused the vessel to shake.

A being larger than life flew out of the ship. He was full of muscles and looked like midnight. He was nothing like Captain Hall had ever seen. He was easily twenty feet tall with horns. A blue aura surrounded his body, and he screamed, "I am Cronos-Zeus. Give me my glove!" Lasers came out of his horns, and whatever they hit, they destroyed. When Captain Hall tried to fire one of his lasers at the god, it didn't do anything at all.

Suddenly, he felt a tingle in his mind, and the glove appeared on his right hand. His arm raised in the air without any thought and fired upon the alien. When it hit him, it knocked him across the sky, and at that point, Captain Hall realized he had something powerful at his disposal. When Cronos-Zeus returned fire, he hit the Captain with a powerful ray, and the glove blocked it. It was like it didn't hurt him at all.

His soldiers flew up from the jungles, ready for battle, and they engaged the god. Ptah's Covenant had smoke spewing out of the ship, and it appeared they were winning. But out of nowhere, some kind of panoramic ray cut through most of the soldiers. Captain Hall's crew was right below the ray, and the God Glove protected Captain Hall. Body parts fell to the ground, and SFC Williams charged Cronos-Zeus. When he was in the vicinity of the god, SFC Williams dissolved into nothingness.

"What in the holy hell?" SGT Webb said. She screamed, "What do we do?"

The alien creature flew closer to them, and said, "You don't even understand what's happening." He displayed his sapphire, very powerful ring, and then said, "Nearly a million years ago, I sided with the Guardians of Oa to kill the Great Mother and Ptah." He paused for a moment. "I would have killed them too, but Ptah, a wise inventor, built a Black Lantern ring that absorbed the light of all the other rings. He defeated me almost as easy as I've defeated you."

"Why are you here?" Captain Hall said.

"To stop you," he said, "You have my glove."

"If I give it to you, will you just leave?" He asked.

Cronos-Zeus laughed. "It doesn't work like that, fool," he said, "You must die for me to get the glove."


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"Father, how do you feel?" Umbra La asked. She looked over at Orion as she hovered next to JJ and he lay on the table with the harness on his head. He had been on the table for nearly two days and the Neuronet filled his head with over fifty terabytes of data.

"Fine," he said with a smile on his face. He looked over at Umbra La for a moment and then said, "I now see the world differently. What was once a gigantic rock in my mind is now tantamount to a pinhead when thinking about the vastness of the universe." He paused for a moment and then looked directly at Oriona, and said, "I thought you were mad when said that I was your husband. I now know we were married two hundred and seventy-three thousand times over our existence. I've had you in multiple forms."

"It is true," Umbra La said with a smile, "Your relationship with Orion goes back five million years. You've fought other gods together and destroyed worlds. Mamma is of Orion's mental essence along with thousands of goddesses throughout the universe."

"I'm glad the machine restored your memory, Ptah," Orion said, "In time, you will go through the apotheosis and take your throne in the Celestial Kingdom."

After she removed the head harness, he rose from the supine position, and said, "So, the Land of the Blessed, this world is in the Dark Corridor. I remember the pattern of the stars in this part of the galaxy. We're over one hundred thousand light years from earth."

"That's correct," Orion said, "We can teleport anywhere in the universe."

"The Land of the Blessed needs its King, father," Umbra La said with a smile. "But for now, the human race needs you back. We've detected the Great Father's attack on the Dawdians. After you're finished with helping the universe, it will be time for you, Orion, my brother Veo, and Mamma to return to the kingdom for good." She walked over to a black safe on the far side of the room, punched in a code, and a large, black ring flew onto his right index finger. "You're the Black Lantern. We've detected Crono-Zeus on Earth, directly over the Dawdians world, and he's coming for the GOD Glove." She handed him another case, and said, "Attach this computer to Mamma's head. It will restore all her knowledge."

"Will do," the Vulcan said.

She waved her right hand, a portal to Earth opened, and then she said, "This will put you directly in front of Cronos-Zeus. Be prepared to fight, father."

"I will return before Christmas with Mamma and we'll sit down for a dinner like old times," he said. He kissed his daughter on the forehead. "Please tell Kova La that I'm proud of her, and I'm proud of you too." He walked through the portal, and when he did, he appeared directly behind Cronos-Zeus. His father's back looked massive in size, but it didn't matter to the Vulcan.

As soon as he appeared to the other soldiers, an electrical bolt flew out of the sky that incapacitated the entire ship. He placed the vessel into a magnetic field that drained it of its energy. He hit all the flying vessels simultaneously with a web of lightning, and all the small fighter planes fell to the ground. With the power of his telekinesis, he stopped the falling ships from falling on the antiquated huts below.

"You two," the Vulcan screamed, "Get out of here. Captain Hall, you're with me."

"So, the Vulcan has returned," Cronos-Zeus said, "With his bitch, Orion."

"You don't appear to realize your death is imminent, father?" The Vulcan said, "What have I told you about addressing my wife?" The entire sky filled with bolts of lightning shooting across it. When Cronos-Zeus looked down at his ring, the Vulcan said, "That's not a good idea. Now, Captain Hall, a descendant of yours wields the GOD Glove," he said, "It's the order of things."

"He's my kin?" Captain Hall asked.

"Yeah," he said, "A piece of his essence is inside of you. How else do you think you could wield the glove?"

Suddenly, a blue beam flew towards the Vulcan, and he countered it with the black lightning from his black power ring. The darkness of his ray absorbed all of the light and drained the Great Father's ring completely. He flew towards the other-worlder, and then the old man punched him in the face and he flew across the clouds. The Vulcan soared around so fast that he charged the older god at full speed, and knocked him into his ship. It caused a great deal of damage.

"When he dies, I want my glove back, Vulcan," Cronos-Zeus said.

"That's not how it works," The Vulcan said, "The weapon goes to his child."

"You haven't changed, Ptah," he said, "You're still the same bastard who stole my wife over two million years ago."

"And you hurt Dora, father," he said with a grimace, "The planet that I loved for over a million years." He paused for a moment and sensed a great deal of dismay inside of Captain Hall's mind. He realized that several men died during the skirmish with the Great Father. The Vulcan turned to his father, and said, "The men you killed had families, Cronos," he said with an angry scowl. "I thought you promised me thousands of years ago you wouldn't return to Earth. You broke your promise, father."

"I saw it as an opportunity," he said, "You've been dead for so long that I had forgotten about you."

"The contract states you will pay me four bricks of gold if you returned to Earth," JJ said. The Vulcan flew directly in front of his father and said, "Give me my gold bricks? There's a price to be paid for interfering in my business."

"I remember that. I made that contract under the influence of Ambrosia," he said. "What are you trying to do to me?"

"My son, the Destroyer, will return soon," he said with a scowl on his face. "I have to build him a ship, so he can return to Doraxia for his education. These are the people he loves, and they will love him."

Cronos-Zeus looked at him for a moment with a grimace. "You're screwing with time again, aren't you?"

"I'm not doing anything differently. THe order to eradicate a large portion of the human race has come," he said with a grimace, "The Green Witch told me we destroyed Oa in one timeline, so we decided to repeat it to get it right. Now, give me the gold, so I can have the resources I need to make life better."

"Damn you, Ptah," he said, "You know I'm soft when it comes to Oa." He stood calmly for a moment, and his daughter, Chetha flew out the ship with the gold bars. The Vulcan took the gold from her with the power of his mind. At the same time, he noticed how young she looked.

"Welcome back, brother," Chetha said, "It's been three hundred years."

"You're still free of blemishes," he said. "Are you eating unicorn under the Vega Moon?"

Chetha smiled. "I miss the old days, Ptah," she said, "When we ruled and loved and lived freely."

"Get on the ship, Chetha," Cronus-Zeus screamed.

Orion flew directly in front of Ptah when Cronus-Zeus screamed and then said, "I hated when you two were lovers. It was an odd time." Immediately, Cronus-Zeus flew to his ship and then Ptah released the electrical field around it.

The Vulcan paused for a moment as he looked directly at Orion. "It was a strange time when Chetha and I had our romance," he said, "But all you had to do was be flesh for me and I never would've looked at her."

"I see the Neuronet has made you desire me in the flesh again," she said, "I guess I asked for this. But if I do decide to become flesh, I'll do it under my own terms and not yours."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

The Vulcan flew down to Ptah's Covenant, down into the actual city with Captain Hall, and met with the Elders. When they saw Orion, they all knelt before her, and then he said, "I need him trained well. He has to know the code of conduct when it comes to the glove, the dangers of it, the laws, and all the spells that come with the weapon."

"Yes, my Lord," Prince Tre La Ryan said. "We will start training him in our ways."

"This is your home for the next year," The Vulcan said. "The DEO will pay your wife a monthly stipend."

Captain Hall pulled the potion out of his pocket, and said, "Have Lena Luthor drink this." He paused for a moment. "I'm sorry I doubted you, Vulcan. You are the real deal."

"You can thank Supergirl for that," he said.

Thursday, November 30, 2017:

Cronus-Zeus gave the Vulcan a little over five hundred million dollars in pure, unadulterated gold. He deposited the money in banks around the world before returning home to Little Africa where Peppermint and Vera slept on opposite ends of the couch. It was early in the morning about six o'clock on the last day of November when he made it back home. Pulling off his shoes, he sat on the floor next to Peppermint on the couch, and then she placed her left hand on his chest. "Welcome home, baby!" She said.

"Welcome back, JJ," Vera said as she waved at him. "How was your trip?"

He smiled for a moment, and said, "Tedious."

JJ fell asleep on the floor right next to Peppermint and Vera as they slept on the couch. Orion set directly on top of his chest while he slept on the floor. By the time he awoke, Peppermint and Vera were already at school while he sat on the couch with Orion hovering next to his head. "I've missed a lot of classes this year," he said calmly.

"What does it matter?" She asked. "At some point, we have to leave this world and go home."

He leaned forward on the couch and said, "I'm upset about the outcome of Krypton."

"It looks like your children killed the planet," she said, "During your long sleep, they destroyed Krypton's core and it eventually caused its destruction."

"It's my fault," he said with a grimace, "I thought the cease-fire Oa made with the Celestial Kingdom would hold in my absence."

"As soon as your light went out, they shot a dark matter ray into the Krypton that caused a slow degradation of its core. It took nearly two hundred thousand years, but when the planet exploded, it not only destroyed Krypton, but it hurt other planets in the solar system."

"I never believed the Dawdians could make a crystal so powerful that it facilitated in the death of my family," he said, "It's my responsibility to destroy that weapon so it can never be used against me again."

"Speaking of the effects of the crystal…," Orion said as she stopped mid-sentence. She flew to the center of the living room, about three feet from the television set. "Peppermint is standing by the fence at the high school stressed because Vera isn't there."

"What are you sensing?" JJ asked calmly.

"She's stressed," she said, "Vera was supposed to meet up with her, but…"

JJ stood in the middle of the room for a minute, and then said, "It is lunchtime." He thought for a second and tried to hone in on Peppermint's frustration. "I too sense her agitation. I'll try to detect Vera's mind." He took all his energy and put it into his mental abilities to find Vera's mind. It wasn't always an easy feat, but his mind grew stronger every day. "I'm not liking this, Orion," he said.

"What do you see?" She asked.

"That's just it. I don't see anything," he said, "I don't detect her mind."


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Meanwhile at Lexcorp…

Lena locked Vera inside a metal cage and forced her to sit down in the middle of it. It looked like Vera had been crying, and then she said, "The Vulcan will detect my pain and come for me."

Lena laughed and then said, "You see those black boxes on the edges of the room?"

"Yeah," she said.

"Those are telepathic dampeners," she said, "I'm using alien technology from a race called the Voridians. I don't know them personally but they had the tech for fighting against Ptah in the databases of their ship. My brother Lex extracted the information and put it in the database for alien tech."

Vera laughed and cried at the same time, and then said, "You'll see. No race can overcome the Vulcan's powers."

"The Dawdians did," she said, "They caused him to kill himself."

Next to Lena-on the workbench-was her Red Raider suit. She stripped down to her undergarments, and then said, "This uniform is designed to kill Kryptonians. Kara's Supergirl, isn't she?" She began putting on the suit.

"I don't know," she said, "She's just JJ's friend."

"It's okay, little girl," Lena replied, "I already know. Why else would she be hanging with a god?"

"You're evil," Vera snapped, "JJ went to Africa just to find a cure for your pain."

"I was willing to give him all of me," she snapped, "And then that damn Kara took it all away."

"It wasn't her fault because you were stupid enough to wear the necklace," she said, "You caused your own pain."

"I could snap your neck so easily in this suit," she said, "It would give me so much pleasure."

"JJ!" Vera exclaimed at the top of her lungs, "I'm in Lexcorp."

"He can't hear you, idiot," she said.

Suddenly, a large hole appeared in the wall and the Vulcan walked through it. It was like he hit the room with a ray that dissolved the wall. "I hear you," he said.

"How did you find us?" Lena asked with a grimace on her face. She had the Red Raider suit on but not the helmet.

The Vulcan laughed. "I hear everything," he said, "When she screamed my name, I knew exactly where she was." JJ pulled out the potion from a pocket on the side of his uniform, and said, "Please drink this."

She looked down at his hand, and said, "No!" A laser shot out of her fist that struck the young warrior in the chest. He flew back out the hole in the wall, and then when he flew back into the room, she was gone. "Where did she go?"

"I don't know," Vera said, "Just get me out of here."

"Oh! Okay," JJ said. With the power of his mind, he opened the cage, and then when Vera walked out, Lena swooped into the room, tossed her out the hole in the walled, and then grabbed the Vulcan by the waist so he couldn't save her. "You fucking, cunt!"

Suddenly, Messiah appeared next to the hole with Vera in the passenger seat and Orion was flying the machine. "You missed, bitch!" Vera exclaimed.

Lena grunted and tried to fly toward the machine, but a laser came out of the car and knocked her into the wall. "You can't defeat us, Lena," the Vulcan said, "Just take the medication."

"Screw you, Vulcan," she said as she hopped to her feet. "I'm about to demonstrate the power of Lexcorp tech on your bitch ass." She flew at the speed of sound toward JJ, knocked him through the other wall, and the entire top part of Lexcorp collapsed. She had hit him so hard that he had a slight case of vertigo. "I've done some studying about you," Lena said, "I know you don't reach your full potential until your twenty-first birthday."

When the Vulcan flew directly above Lena, he asked, "Just because I haven't reached me zenith doesn't mean I can't kill you with just a mere thought."

"Go ahead and try to enter my mind, JJ? You'll see I'm prepared for everything."

He looked down at her for a moment with his telepathic abilities, but when he tried to enter into her mind, he couldn't detect it. As he tried to thrust his thoughts into her head, she hit him with a sonic cannon that caused him to crash into the Carter building. It broke the entire skyscraper in half in the middle of the day. Thousands of people were inside the skyscraper, and if the top half of the building crashed to the ground, thousand would die. When the building began to fall over, JJ screamed loudly as he used his telekinesis to keep it afloat. "Kara?! James?! Where are you?" He screamed. With the power of his mind, he kept the skyscraper from falling, and then when he set it back into place, Supergirl came on the scene. She immediately welded the steel rods in place.

"It's good, Vulcan!" Supergirl exclaimed. Immediately, he noticed that she war some armor over her uniform. She had everything covered except for her face.

"I'm trying not to kill her," JJ said, "But she's testing me."

"I got this," James said as he flew toward her. First, he struck her in the face, but it was nothing more than a light tap. He hit her like he didn't want to hurt her. She spun around and kicked him in the stomach and he flew backward across the empty sky.

"We can't take it easy anymore," JJ said, "This Red Raider uniform is no joke."

"She can't handle my right hook," Kara said with a scowl on her face. When she raced toward Lena, she kicked the girl of steel into JJ and they both twirled to the ground.

"Dammit!" JJ exclaimed. They crashed to the ground with JJ holding on to Kara. After the pile of dust cleared around them, he said, "We're getting our asses kicked by a broken-hearted amateur.

When he hopped to his feet, Lena hovered above him, and asked, "So, is Kara the bitch you love?"

"Well, I'm sure my friend, Kara, and the Vulcan are just friends," Supergirl said in an unbelievable voice.

"Cut the bullshit, Kara," she snapped, "I know you're Supergirl."

"Just drink the damn potion," JJ screamed, "Cut out all this nonsense." James flew down behind Lena, and then looked at him and winked. When he tried to take Lena from the rear, she kicked him into the ground and it caused a huge crater.

Supergirl then punched her in the gut while she unleashed a Kryptonite spray at the same time. Lena flew up into the sky and Supergirl collapsed to the ground. Immediately, JJ picked up her limp body, wiped off the Kryptonite spray, and then she opened her eyes.

"Enough of this bullshit. I'm going to punch her in the face so hard," he said with a grimace.

"What will that do?" Supergirl asked while in a daze.

"Oh! I'm going to kill her," he said as he placed her on the ground.

"JJ, don't," she said as he flew into the air at the speed of sound. He flew up in the air so fast that it caused a sonic boom. The entire area shook like an explosion happened. When he flew toward Lena, the sky darkened and a lightning bolt struck her suit. It caused it to lose power and then out of nowhere, he struck her with a sonic fist that crushed her face, killing her on contact. When she tumbled to the ground, he didn't try to catch her. He let her crashed to the ground and the kryptonite in her suit spewed into the air.

Quietly, he flew down to her broken body and looked her over for a moment. Patches of green fluid were all over the area, and when James flew down beside him, he turned away when he saw Lena's crushed face. It was a macabre scene because the helmet had broken off into her face and blood dribbled out of the wound. It was hard for a person with a weak stomach to see it.

"Dude, when do we kill people?" He asked with a grimace.

JJ looked over at him for a minute and said, "I quit playing with her when she shot Kara with that green shit. I should've killed her immediately when she kidnapped Vera, but I let her live."

James paced back and forth for a second with his hands on his helmet. "This isn't what we do, JJ. Damn! How do we explain this to Kara?" He asked.

"Explain what?" She said as she lumbered over to them. James tried to block her view from Lena's bloodied body, but she saw it anyway. "What the fuck?"

"What?" JJ asked.

"You killed her?!" She screamed. When she tried to run over to Lena's body, she fell face first on the ground.

"James, get her out of here," he said, "There's kryptonite everywhere." He walked over to Lena's body and then spoke into his watch. "Bring the machine, Vera?" He looked over at Kara as she lay on the ground, weakened by the kryptonite.

"On my way," she said.

About five minutes later, the Messiah pulled up to JJ as he hovered over Lena's body. He looked back at Kara on the other side of the street and she gave him a scowl while laying flat on her back. Vera handed him the machine while he pulled the broken helmet off her face. It had dug deep into the flesh on her face. She was completely deformed and looked like a crushed watermelon. Quickly, he took off her entire suit and it appeared the fall had broken her back too. She lay on the ground wearing only her bra and panties.

"What the hell are you doing?" James asked.

"I'm going to give her the potion," he said, "I have to heal her wounds, give her the potion and erase her memory." There was a scar on her stomach that he didn't see when they had sex. When he saw it, he looked inside of her with his powerful x-ray vision and noticed she had a hysterectomy at some point in her life. He placed the machine on her stomach, programmed it, and then her body started healing. It took nearly forty minutes for all her bones to heal. Her hysterectomy scar disappeared and her innards grew back. He knew she'd start having her monthlies, but he didn't care. "Take that shit off!"

"My uniform?" He asked.

"Yes," he said, "I'm erasing our alternate identities from her memories. You're going to be the one with her when she awakens."

After James took off his uniform, he stood in front of him wearing some spandex. He then looked down at Lena's flat stomach and wondered if he did the right thing. He didn't know the reason behind her hysterectomy, but now the machine reversed it. He wondered if he stepped over some kind of ethical boundary. In some ways, he considered it a punishment for putting on the charm. He then placed the brain device on her head, programmed it to erase all knowledge of Kara, James, and his alternate identities. He then programmed it so she'd fall in love with the first man who looked her in her eyes. After he finished programming the device, he pulled the potion out of his pocket, poured it down her throat, and then picked up Kara on the other side of the street and left.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

JJ, Peppermint, Orion, and Vera worked in the warehouse across from their apartment complex. Rachel Ballard owned the property but JJ used it to work on a better fighting suit for Bruce Wayne. He commandeered the suit from Lena Luthor after she attacked him a few days earlier. He knew the Lexcorp design was much better than Waynecorp design, but he would never tell that to Bruce.

Patiently, he waited for James Olsen to drop by the warehouse because he had some complaints with JJ over what he did to Lena. The CatCo CEO berated him because he changed her thought process and entire body chemistry with his futuristic device.

When James came into the warehouse, he walked over to JJ and pushed him.

"What the fuck, Olson?" JJ asked, "Is that how you say hello now?"

"You know what you did, JJ," he said with a grimace, "Lena is over my apartment, cooking me dinner, and trying to have sex with me all day."

JJ laughed. "You're welcomed."

"Dude, she thinks she loves me," he said, "It's all fake love though. It's not real love."

"Then explain to me what you think real love is?" He asked. The Red Raider suit was stretched out on the table and he was steady working on redesigning the lasers to work with Veo's interface. "She's doing everything for you that you like."

"But it's not real," he said.

"Just enjoy it while it last, James," he said.

"Your meddling will be the end of me," James said as he walked out the warehouse.

The End


End file.
